Do You See What I See?
by shiki94
Summary: When Matt, Jeff, and Alex Hardy have to move across the country to California, they never expected to fit in so well with the new friends they make at their new school. While Matt and Alex seem to love it, Jeff seems more guarded than they are. Could it take some gentle encouragement from a new friend of his own to get him to open up? Jeff Hardy/Maria AU
1. New City, New Life

**I don't even know how I got the inspiration for this story, but I wanted to just type it up and post it here. All I can say is that my crazy muses gave me inspiration for all of the Superstars and Divas to use in this story. ^^ I own none of the Superstars or Divas used in this story. I only own Alex.**

Looking around at the walls of his new bedroom, Jeff Hardy couldn't help but feel a little upset. 'Why the hell did we ever have to move? Things were so much better in Cameron. So, why am I sitting in a barren bedroom in some strange house in Los Angeles, California?' Jeff thought. He never wanted to move in the first place, but it was insisted upon by his dad and his mentor that he and his family move across the country. His older brother Matt and his younger sister Alexis, known as Alex to many, had no problem because they saw it as an adventure and something positive, but Jeff didn't want to leave at all. He would've rather tried to tough it out on his own back in Cameron, but the minute his mentor insisted that they leave to go live closer to her friend, Jeff had no other option but to listen what his teacher said. After all, he did have her to thank for everything she's done to help them out, especially after their accident.

"Why do you look like such a lost puppy, Skittles? Did Alex take your sketchbook away from you again?" asked a voice with a hint of a smile in it.

Turning around, Jeff saw that it was just Jake. "No Jake. And for the record, I'm more worried about someone outside of my family seeing what's in my sketchbook. But that's not it."

"Then what's troubling you Skittles? Last time you looked this depressed was when you guys were leaving Cameron."

"That's it right there. I don't get why our mentor told us to come move all the way across the country just so her friend can help me, Matt, and Alex. She was doing just fine."

"Yeah, well, you gotta admit Jeffy, your mentor was getting pretty old. She probably just wanted you guys to get help from someone younger than her who could keep up with you three. I mean, have you seen your sister after she's had a lot of sugar?" Jake asked, smiling.

"I guess you're right Jake. But then there's the whole awkward 'We three have to start at a new school' thing tomorrow. What if we get there and the next thing I know, we run into people who want to shake hands or hug me? You know I can't control what's wrong with me."

"Huh. I never thought of it like that. Well, you and your brother and sister are going to be new kids at that school right? Maybe you three'll luck up and the rest of the student body will want nothing to do with you guys."

"I can only hope so. I mean after all, living in California is probably going to be a drag and the school's probably going to suck too. Have you even seen the people here? It's like they all look the same. With luck, we'll blend, possibly." Jeff said, traces of hope evident in his voice.

"Well, good luck with that. But, word of advice on trying to blend, you might want to do something with your hair." Jake said, pointing to Jeff's long hair that was dyed blue, green, and purple.

"But I like it the way it is. Maybe, we'll meet other freak kids at the school. That way, I won't have to do anything to my hair." Jeff said.

"Well, what ever it is you decided to do, I wish you the best of luck with it." Jake said, before he vanished.

"Thanks for the talk." Jeff said. After Jake had left, Jeff proceeded to go through his belongings and put up some of his posters and pieces of artwork on his walls. Sighing after finishing his room, Jeff laid down on his bed, drifting into a daydream that gave him, his brother, and their sister their abilities in the first place. 'Can't believe it's already been six years since that night.'

* * *

_Flashback_

_Gilbert Hardy was driving back home from an evening church service with his three children with him: Matt in the front seat, Jeff in the back left passenger seat, and Alex sitting in the back right passenger seat in her safety seat. The whole time they were driving home, Jeff and Alex were talking about how much fun church was for them and the younger kids, and Matt and Gilbert were talking about a fishing trip they had planned soon. They were a few miles away from their home, when suddenly, a driver, who was driving too fast, came up behind them and struck the Hardy car from behind, which made Gilbert lose control and swerve off the road and collide with a tree._

_All that could be heard around was the crunch of metal, the shattering of glass, and screaming. When it seemed like the worst was over, Gilbert looked up from where the air bag had deployed and he was shocked to see that he was fine aside from the fact that he could feel a bruise start to form on his forehead. But when he looked to see if his children were OK as well, what he saw made his heart stop: Matt had a huge shard of glass from the windshield jutting out of his forehead and several other tiny pieces jutting out from his cheeks; Jeff's head had collided with the window so he was in a similar situation as Matt was, the only difference was the fact that his head was leaning forward, slack from getting whipped around in the crash; Alex had been jerked around fairly roughly herself, so there were bruises beginning to form around her neck, she had a few pieces of glass jutting from her cheeks and there was a piece poking out from her left eye. Once Gilbert saw what had been done to his kids, he leapt out of his car, cell phone in hand, and proceeded to call 911 for an ambulance that arrived almost immediately after he called. When he saw the EMS technicians on the scene get the person out that rear-ended him, he saw that the other driver didn't have a single scratch on him aside from a few bruises. When he got an official report from police officers at the scene, he found out that the driver was drunk and he immediately pressed charges against the driver._

_When the EMS were done getting Matt, Jeff, and Alex out of the remains of their car, Gilbert demanded to go along so that he could keep a check on the condition of his children. The whole time he rode in the ambulance, he was hoping and praying that his children would make it out fine. He finally made it to the hospital and was told to sit in the waiting room while the doctors at the hospital tried their best to help his kids. Some hours later, a doctor, whose scrubs were covered in blood, came out and told Gilbert the news he was dreading hearing: his three children died while they were still being operated on. Hearing this news, Gilbert immediately broke down, crying about the fact that he would never get to hear or see his children again. The doctor asked if he wanted to see them one last time before they sent their bodies to the morgue. But before they could make it back to the operating room, one of the doctor's assistants came running forward and told them news the doctor wouldn't have expected to hear: Matt, Jeff, and Alex had started breathing and their hearts were beating again. The doctor then told Gilbert to go back to the waiting room and wait for him to be called back to see his kids. Gilbert was more than willing to do what the doctor said if it meant that he'd get to be reunited with his family again soon._

_Hours later, the same doctor came back and told Gilbert that everything that he and his team had to do: Matt had several sets of stitches on his face; Jeff had to wear a neck brace for two more hours to keep his neck aligned and he had stitches as well; Alex had to get stitches, was wearing a neck brace, and she had to have a complete ocular transplant, meaning that the doctors took out her left eye that was damaged beyond repair and they had to surgically implant a new fully functioning eye back into her eye socket. After getting used to her eye, Alex was seeing just fine. Once the doctor gave Gilbert permission, he went to the room his kids were in to find that they were talking happily about church. The minute Gilbert came in, all conversation stopped and the trio immediately started calling for their dad to come to the three of them. He went to Alex's bed, picked her up and sat on her bed while holding her, prompting Matt and Jeff to move to the same bed._

_"I'm so glad that you kids are OK. I lost it when the doctor told me that you three were dead." Gilbert said through happy tears._

_"I'm glad we're OK too daddy. Now, we get to be with you again." Matt said happily._

_"Same here. I just hate it that we're hurting so bad right now." Jeff said laughing._

_"Yeah. Maybe once we get out of here, we can all go home and rest easy." Alex said, burrowing her head in her dad's chest._

_"Maybe we will. It'll be tomorrow when we leave though. So, you three get some rest and I'll get some sleep myself." Gilbert said._

_"OK. Good night Daddy." the trio said. "We love you."_

_"And I love you three too." Gilbert said, smiling through happy tears as he kissed each of his children good night._

* * *

Jeff didn't even realize he was crying until he saw Alex standing in his doorway, looking at him concerned.

"You OK there Jeffy?" Alex asked, walking towards her brother.

"Yeah. I'm just not really feeling that hot about starting going to Palm Hills High tomorrow. We're gonna be the only signs of individuality in a sea of tanned people." Jeff said.

"That's not all you're thinking about. You've been thinking about the accident again, haven't you?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. It really creeps me out how you always know what I'm thinking. I wish you'd stop it sometimes." Jeff said, playfully shoving Alex.

"Hahaha. Well, it's a blessing and a curse. Like when it's close to my birthday and I can't help but peek inside you guys' minds to see what I'm gonna get. By the way, tell Jake when you see him again that I'd never take your sketchbook. Now come one. It's dinner time and daddy ordered Thai food for us." Alex said, pulling on Jeff's arm.

Jeff let his self be pulled downstairs and into the kitchen by his sister. He really wanted to believe what Jake and Alex were trying to tell him about the new school. He just wanted to believe that somehow things would go well.

"Jeff, why're you thinking about our first day of school tomorrow?" Alex asked him, the minute they sat at their kitchen table.

"Alex, would you stop doing that sometimes?" Jeff asked.

"Well, I was just curious about why you have that look you get when you're worried about trying to choose colors for your latest drawings. Are you worried that people will want to touch you or something?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. What do I do if someone really wants to shake hands or give me a high-five or something like that?" Jeff asked.

"Hmm. Well, from what most normal teens do nowadays, they'll probably just tell you hi and that's about it. You should probably only stress if someone tries to hug you. Then that would be trouble." Matt said.

"Ha. You say 'normal teens' like that doesn't mean the three of us." Jeff said laughing.

"Yeah. Well, when you can do what we can do, then the term 'normal' tends to fly away from us." Alex said smiling proudly.

"She's right you two. Plus, coming back from the dead is something that doesn't happen to so many people." Gilbert said, ruffling Alex's hair.

"Yeah. I guess we really aren't normal, per se." Jeff said smiling.

"Hooray. Hooray for not being normal." Matt said smiling.

All around their small table, the four Hardys all talked and had a great dinner. After dinner was over, Jeff, Matt, and Alex went upstairs to get some rest for their first day of school tomorrow. Jeff flopped on his bed and just stared at the ceiling while numerous thoughts ran through his head. 'What if I get there tomorrow and the first thing I have to do is shake hands with someone? Things could be catastrophic before they get good. Maybe what everyone is telling me is true. Maybe the kids at this school won't touchy-feely like so many teens are. Only time will tell.' Jeff thought before drifting off to sleep.

**Read and review. Seems like out of the three Hardys, Jeff's the most nervous to start school. Why is he so worried about people touching him? Stay tuned for chapter 2. =)**


	2. Making a New Friend

**I'm actually amazed I've gotten two chapters of this story up in a matter of hours. Usually it takes me a day to type just one. Here's chapter 2. Enjoy.**

The next morning, Jeff was jarred out of his sleep by Matt and Alex banging on his door yelling at him to get up.

"Come on in there Jeffro. We have to leave for school in, like, 30 minutes. You don't want to be late for the first day at our new school do you?" Matt asked from the other side of the door.

"No. Not really I guess." Jeff said, sitting up in bed and stretching.

"Well, we'll be downstairs in the kitchen waiting for you." Alex said, as she and Matt left.

Sighing, Jeff got out of bed and made his way to his closet. He didn't spend long trying to find something to wear when he decided on a Fox Riders Unlimited shirt, a pair of black cargo pants, and his black Vans shoes. After he got dressed, he went to the bathroom where he proceeded to brush his teeth and wash his face. Once he finished in there, he went downstairs and into the kitchen, where he found Matt and Alex talking about going to their new school. By the time Jeff made it to the kitchen and ate breakfast, it was time for them to be leaving. When Jeff finished, he, Matt, and Alex all told their dad goodbye and left.

"Wait. Does anyone have their pendulums with them?" Matt asked.

"I've got mine. I had a feeling that you two would forget yours." Alex said, holding up a heart-shaped stone hanging from a chain. "But really, what are the odds that someone is gonna want us to help their dead grandma or dad pass on?"

"You never know. Los Angeles is a crazy place, plus it seems like there are spirits around a bunch of places. Who's to say that Palm Hills High isn't one of those places?" Matt asked.

"Huh. You got yourself a really good point there Matty. Don't worry. If I encounter anyone that needs help passing on, then I'll try to do it somewhere that I won't be noticed." Alex said smiling.

"Good idea Lexi. Now let's head on to school. I know we're probably gonna be early, but I want to get there so I can get a good feel for the school." Jeff said.

The whole time the Hardys were in the car on the way to school, they couldn't help but wonder about what their coming was going to be like. With the prospect of their secret getting out, they could potentially be made social pariahs before they even have the chance to make friends. The thing that makes Matt, Alex, and Jeff stand out from the crowd of 'normal' people is the fact that they can communicate with the spirits of the dead. It all happened as a result of the crash that technically killed them. When they each came back to life, they happened to notice that there were other people that those around them couldn't see or talk to. So when they told their dad, Gilbert didn't think they were being serious until they had the spirits help do a simple test with them that proved what they said was true. Gilbert soon sought out help from a paranormal expert who decided to help the three young Hardys hone their gifts. But as they aged, their mentor was slowly losing focus on the world around her. so it was a bit of a shock when she told them to head to Los Angeles to go live closer to a friend she has that specializes in the same things she does. They didn't want to leave at first, but when their mentor demanded that they leave, they packed everything they had and left for California, but not before their mentor told them to utilize everything she taught them once they arrived.

* * *

As soon as the three got to school, they were greeted with the sights and sounds of students already showing up for class. It may have been the Hardys' first day, but for the rest of the student body at Palm Hills, it was their second week of the first semester. Immediately some of the students took in the sight of three new kids walking towards the main building: Jeff was a sight to behold with his skater look and rainbow-dyed hair; Matt was a sight to see as well because he was wearing a short-sleeved flannel shirt, blue jeans with white paint splatters on them, and a pair of boots; and Alex was dressed more like a kid getting ready for their first day of kindergarten because she was wearing a t-shirt with a big Pikachu on it, a black-and-pink pleated skirt, black knee-high socks with pink skulls, black Converses, and had pink streaks dyed into her hair. The trio felt eyes bore into them and could hear people whispering about them, but they just proceeded towards the main building. When they walked inside they were greeted with a sight of row after row of lockers, several students walking in small groups, and a few teachers heading to their classrooms. Alex tried to see if she could get a clear read from any of the passersby until she landed on the thoughts of a girl who was walking past them at that moment.

_'Man. I really hope these new kids I have to help aren't gonna be just like the popular kids. Last thing we need is to have more pompous asses around here.'_

Alex saw that the girl that was thinking these thoughts walked past them right then. Immediately she and her brothers saw that this girl stood out from most of the other girls they saw while they were headed inside: she had long hair that was dyed red, she was wearing a black shirt with a skull on it that rose up above her belly button and a pair of black and white cargo shorts, she had a large tattoo on her upper left arm, and she was wearing a pair of DC shoes.

"Excuse me?" Alex said, dashing off to catch up with the girl.

"Hmm? Can I help you with something?" the girl asked, turning to face Alex.

"Yeah. You see, me and my brothers are new at this school and we don't know our way to the front office to get our schedules. Do you think that you can help us?" Alex asked.

"Sure thing. In fact, I think you guys are kids that I have to help out. Try not to take this the wrong way, but as part of a punishment that I have, I have to help assist new kids to the school. I'm Amy by the way. Amy Dumas." Amy said, smiling.

"Nice to meet you Amy. My name is Alexis Hardy, but usually I go by Alex. And my older brothers coming up behind me are Matt and Jeff." Alex said, smiling back.

"Wait, how do you know that they're coming up behind y-" Amy was asking before she saw Matt and Jeff walking towards her.

"Alex, what are you doing? You can't just walk up to random folks and just start talking to th-" Matt was saying before he saw Amy.

"I can see you two are a bit lost for words, so I'll handle the introductions. Matt, Jeff, this is Amy. Apparently the principal here assigned her to help us three get used to the school. Amy, these are my older brothers Matt and Jeff." Alex said smiling.

After a minutes of awkward silence, Matt and Amy cleared their throats and proceeded to finish making their own introductions. Jeff, meanwhile, just told Amy that it was nice to meet her.

"So if you three will follow me, I'll lead you guys to the main office. If you ever need to talk to a counselor or the principal or you want to change around your classes, just come here." Amy said, stopping outside the doors that led to the main office.

"Thanks for showing us the way Amy. I hope we have a class together." Alex said smiling.

"No problem. I hope I can see you guys more often too." Amy said, specifically looking at Matt before she turned and left for her class.

Once Amy was out of earshot, Alex turned to Matt, grinning, and said "Amy likes you."

"What? That's not true. And what have me and Jeff told you about reading peoples' thoughts?" Matt asked, blushing slightly.

"You guys told me not to, but I wasn't reading her thoughts. It was written all over the girl's face. Just like it's written on yours that you like her." Alex said smiling.

"Whatevs Lexi. Let's just head inside so we can get our schedules and go to class." Matt said, opening the door to the main office.

The minute they walked inside, they headed to the receptionist, whose name they saw was Mae Young, and asked for their schedules.

"Here you three go. And in case you three ever need to talk about something and you can't get with your counselor, you can always talk to me. I'm known by many of the students her as Granny Mae so you three can call me that if you'd like." Granny Mae said, handing the three their schedules.

"We'll be sure to keep that in mind. Wish us luck for the day." Alex said, leaving the office with Matt and Jeff following close behind.

"So what class do you guys have first?" Jeff asked.

"I've got English 9 with Mr. Cole." Alex said.

"I've got Pre-Calculus with Mr. Striker." Matt said.

"Looks like I got History with Mr. Orton." Jeff said.

"Well, with luck we'll probably all have lunch together. I'd best head off. See you guys later." Alex said, hugging both of her brothers before dashing away.

"I guess I'll leave now too. And Jeffro, things will go fine. Just text me if you need me and I'll come find you." Matt said, hugging his brother before heading in the same direction Alex left in.

Sighing, Jeff left heading for History. 'Here goes nothing. Wish me luck mom. Because I'm gonna need every single bit I can get.' Jeff thought as he reached his classroom.

**Read and review. The Hardys were able to make a new friend. Now they hope that they can make more in their own separate classes. Will Jeff have luck enough to stop doubting himself so that he can make new friends? Stay tuned for chapter 3. =)**


	3. The Hardys Make Friends

**This is actually a personal best record for me: 3 chapters for a story up in one night. ^^ With luck later today, I'll probably get to have another chapter or so up for this story and for Rise and Shine. Again, this story idea came from my very crazy and sometimes hyper muses. Enjoy.**

As soon as Alex walked into Mr. Cole's English class, he had already started a lecture that stopped when he saw his newest student.

_'Another kid? Damn it. I wish old man McMahon would give me a little advance warning before this happens. Especially when I've already started teaching.'_

Alex frowned after hearing what Mr. Cole was thinking, but she shook it off and smiled as she walked in and headed to the front of the room.

"Class, we have a new student joining us. This is Alexis Hardy. Now Alexis, why don't you take the time to introduce yourself to the class." Mr. Cole said.

"OK. Well, hi everybody. Like Mr. Cole said, my name is Alexis Hardy, but I go by Alex. I moved to LA from a small town in North Carolina, so I guess you could say that I'm relatively new to the area. As far as interests go, I love anime and manga. And I love playing video games. I just recently got the Game of the Year edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum, so I'm stoked to play that. And that about sums me up. Anything else you want to know, just ask me. I won't bite." Alex said, smiling at the class.

"Now there's the whole issue of finding a seat for you. How about you go take the empty seat beside where Ms. Bonin and Mr. Rhodes are sitting?" Mr. Cole said, pointing to a seat at the back of the room.

"Sure thing. And don't worry, I won't be as big of a problem that you think I am." Alex said before heading for her seat.

The whole time she was heading for her seat, she could hear kids whispering and talking about her, and what she heard in their thoughts mirrored what they were saying. So when she finally got to her seat and sat down, she was surprised to see that her new seat neighbors were turning to look at her. Alex immediately saw that both of these had the potential to be good friends. The girl, who she was guessing was Bonin, had blonde hair with black dyed in it and she was wearing a vintage Aerosmith t-shirt, paint-splattered jeans, and a pair of sandals. The boy, who was apparently Rhodes, had dark brown hair and was wearing a t-shirt with a Union Jack on it, a pair of faded blue jeans, and a pair of Converses.

"That was pretty badass how you said you've got Batman: Arkham Asylum. Maybe you could let me borrow it once you beat it." the girl said.

"Sure thing. And in case you weren't really paying attention, I'm Alex." Alex said, smiling.

"Nice to meet you Alex. I'm Kaitlyn and this guy here is Cody." Kaitlyn said, smiling.

"Hi. It's really awesome to meet you. Your eyes are really pretty. Are they naturally like that?" Cody asked, as a slight blush started to color his face.

"It's because of an accident. My right eye is my natural hazel color where my left violet eye happened because of the accident." Alex said smiling and blushing slightly.

"Wow. That's pretty amazing. I can already tell that we're gonna be fast friends." Kaitlyn said smiling.

Smiling back, Alex settled into a lecture from Mr. Cole. 'So far so good. I wonder how things are going for Matt and Jeff.' Alex thought.

* * *

"Wow Matt. I'm impressed. Not that many students are that well acquainted with Pre-Cal." Mr. Striker said amazed.

"Well, Math's always been my strongest subject so this is pretty easy." Matt said, smiling and nervously rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, just keep up the good work Mr. Hardy." Mr. Striker said before turning back to his board to go on with a problem he was explaining.

"That was pretty impressive there Matt. Math is not my strongest subject no matter how many times I've had it explained to me." Amy said smiling.

"She's right. Take it from her cousin. I've tried helping this girl so much I've actually had to stay over at her house just tutor her in the stuff we learn about." a blonde-haired girl, who Amy introduced Matt to as being her cousin Trish, said.

"Well, maybe I can help the both of you girls out if you really need it. I've always been awesome at Math so I'd be more than happy to help you." Matt said smiling nervously and blushing slightly.

* * *

"Does anyone know which ancient civilization was the first to develop a writing system?" Mr. Orton asked the class.

Shyly, Jeff raised his hand and waited for Mr. Orton to call on him. When Jeff was called on, he answered "The Sumerians. And the writing system is known as cuneiform."

"Correct Mr. Hardy. Now class if you would all get your textbooks out and turn to the chapter that first talks about the Sumerians and read to the end of the first section. Jeff, since you don't have a book you can look on with Randy." Mr. Orton said.

Moving to get a better look at the book, Jeff saw the Randy in question and saw that he was about the same as Jeff. He had short dark brown hair and was wearing a dark green shirt with a picture of two attacking vipers on it, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a pair of Nike shoes.

"Hi. I'm Jeff." Jeff said.

"Hi. I'm Randy. And I know what you're thinking. Yes Mr. Orton is my dad, but thank god he doesn't do anything to embarrass me here." Randy said smiling.

"Hahaha. I'd probably be to embarrassed to even show up if my dad taught here. He could easily embarrass me, my brother, and my sister in one stroke." Jeff said laughing.

"You've got other siblings? That must be fun. Are they older or younger than you?"

"Matt's a year older than me and Alexis is a year younger than me."

"Cool. Maybe I'll get to meet them."

"You'll probably get to see them at lunch. Once you meet them, it'll be hard to forget them."

"Randy, could you be any more rude? Aren't you gonna introduce us to your new friend?" a girl with long brown hair said, turning to look at Randy.

"Sorry babe. Jeff, this is my girlfriend Candice, and some of our other friends, Ted, John, Melina, Zack, and Evan." Randy said, introducing each of his friends.

"Nice to meet you Jeff. And I'll be the first to say that I love your hair dye." Candice said smiling.

The others chorused a similar round of greetings and got back to their reading. All the while, every now and then, one of them would crack a joke and the others would laugh. Doing this with people he considered friends made Jeff feel normal.

'I can't believe how well things are going. I hope the rest of the day goes smoothly like this. I think I just might like this school.' Jeff thought happily.

**Read and review. It would appear that Matt, Jeff, and Alex are all settling in pretty well at their new school, but then again, they've only been in one class. With three more classes and lunch to get through, will the friends continue to roll in? Or will they undoubtedly come across an enemy or two? Stay tuned for chapter 4. =)**

**(I know I've had this chapter for this story posted once before, but instead of having Cody be gay, I made him straight. Just to help satisfy the pairing that I have going with him and my OC in my other high school fic I'm writing.)**


	4. Another Psychic Kid?

**I know it's been a while since I last updated this story, but I've been mapping out the ideas I had for it over the past few weeks. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. The next few chapters are going to be told from different perspectives, mainly Alex, Matt and Jeff. =)**

* * *

**Alex**

_"Damn Ms. Kiebler's got a huge rack. If only I was her age…"_

_ "I don't even know what the hell I'm doing in here, this class is so fucking boring."_

_ "Why can't it be lunchtime already? I didn't get a chance to eat anything and my friends don't have anything I can snack on. This sucks."_

Alex spent a good part of her second period class, which was Teen Living, listening in on the minds of her classmates. She didn't seem to have the success she had in first period as far as making friends went, so she was just quietly sitting in her seat drawing random logos for superheroes she liked. She was ripped away from her drawing by Ms. Kiebler calling the class to attention.

"Class, I know you all have been sitting in your seats bored for some time now, so I want you all to partner up with one of your classmates and make a poster showing some of the things you would want to buy if you had $50000. I'll give you all 45 minutes to work on this assignment," Ms. Kiebler said, as most of the class got up from their seats and partnered up in pairs of what Alex was assuming were close friends. Sighing, she raised her hand and said, "Ms. Kiebler, I don't have a partner to work on this assignment with."

"You don't Alex? OK, let me see who I can pair you up with," Ms. Kiebler said as she looked around the room until a hand shot up.

"Um, Ms. Kiebler, I don't have a partner either," said the person.

"Oh OK. Alex, you can go partner up with AJ," Ms. Kiebler said, pointing to the student who raised their hand.

Alex turned in her seat, expecting to see a boy and was shocked to see that AJ was a girl. AJ had was wearing a pair of glasses and had long brown hair. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a Batman logo on it, a pair of jean shorts, and a pair of high-top black Converse shoes. Alex got up from her seat and walked over to where AJ was sitting. Sitting down, Alex immediately started to feel nervous and started looking around, trying to hide the blush that was starting to creep over her face.

"Um, hi. Like Ms. Kiebler said, my name is Alex. And I want to say that your shirt is so cool. Batman is one of my all-time favorite superheroes, not to mention I just recently got the Game of the Year edition of Arkham Asylum," Alex said.

"Really? That's pretty awesome. I'm AJ and it's really awesome to meet you. I hope we can become really good friends," AJ said.

"I hope so too. Now for this project, what do you think we should put on our poster?" Alex asked.

"I was thinking maybe we could put pictures of a bunch of different comic books, video games, action figures and figurines, and, just for the hell of it, a few geek ware things. I've actually wanted a bit of an excuse to openly tell people that I want a TARDIS for myself," AJ said excitedly.

"Hahaha. That's quite the epic geek fantasy right there. That's for sure going on the poster," Alex said, excitedly drawing a picture of a TARDIS to add on to their poster.

While everyone else was working on their posters, Alex decided to listen in on what everyone was thinking about their own group projects.

_"What's really the point in doing this poster? I'd rather be asleep right now."_

_ "I know what we're putting on ours, a big ass picture of a new car. If we stare at it hard enough, maybe we'll get one just like it."_

_ "Hey kid! Stop reading my thoughts! You'll never find anything in here of major importance!"_

Alex's head had shot up after hearing this. This was actually the first time that someone's actually been able to communicate with her through telepathy, so curiously, she decided to keep up her conversation with whoever was communicating with her.

_"How is it that you knew that I was reading your thoughts?"_

_ "Because, it's part of the power I have. I take you're telepathic too, so why are you reading peoples' thoughts anyway?"_

_ "It's hard for me to control, so I actually just tend to randomly read the thoughts of people around me. Whoever you are, you're the first person to actually communicate with me like this."_

_ "Well, it sounds to me like you need help with keeping your powers in check. If you'd like, I could take you to meet my mentors that help me keep my powers in check."_

_ "Really? That's great! That's actually the reason why me and my brothers moved here to California. Maybe your mentor is the one that we have to see for help with controlling our powers."_

_ "Hahaha, well anything I can do to help out fellow psychic kids."_

_ "Thanks again. If it's too much to ask, can we meet up? I actually had it as a plan to try and meet other people with abilities like mine."_

_ "Sure. Ask Ms. Kiebler to go to the restroom and I'll meet up with you out in the hallway."_

_ "OK."_

"Hey, Ms. Kiebler. Is it OK if I go to the restroom?" Alex asked.

"Sure thing. Make sure you come back soon," Ms. Kiebler said.

"OK. AJ, I'll be right back. Just keep working on the poster," Alex said, leaving the classroom.

Once she was out in the hallway, Alex waited for the person she was telepathing with. She was drumming her fingers on one of the lockers behind her, so she jumped a little when the door opened and another student came out. Alex was actually floored by how this other student looked. The other student was a girl and, next to Amy, AJ, and Kaitlyn, this girl stood out more than most of the other students at the school. She was Latina and she had long black hair that was separated into two big pigtails. She had black painted nails, and was wearing a black t-shirt with an Opeth logo, a black-and-read plaid skirt that went midway down her legs, and a pair of black combat boots with a pair of fishnet stockings. Alex also happened to notice that the girl was wearing four different rings, she had snake-bite lip piercings, a pair of bat earrings, and had an industrial bar in her right ear.

"So you're the kid that's been communicating with me during class?" the girl asked.

"Yeah. My name's Alexis, but I prefer it if people call me Alex," Alex said.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Ariel," Ariel said.

"Ariel? That's a pretty name," Alex said.

"Well, thanks. So what made you want to just randomly want to start reading the minds of people around you? I know not that many people will be able to tell if you've been poking around in their minds, but it can be dangerous using your ability so openly," Ariel said.

"I guess it's because of the fact that I really do have trouble trying to control this ability of mine. I've only been this way since I was about eight," Alex said.

"What exactly caused you to gain an ability like telepathy when you were so young?" Ariel asked.

"I was in a car crash that caused me and my brothers to die. But somehow, we came back to life, and when we came back, we were able to see spirits of the dead and we each gained a different ability," Alex explained.

"That's rather intriguing. I do believe I should introduce you to my boyfriend Kevin. He's got abilities like us, so it'll be easy for you to explain everything that's happened between the two of us today," Ariel said.

"OK. Do you think, maybe after school, you could meet up with me and my brothers and we could go meet the person that's your mentor? If what my old mentor told us is true, then your mentor may be the person we have to meet," Alex said.

"Sounds fine with me. But a word of warning, there are two other people here like me and Kevin. You and your brothers will get to meet them after school," Ariel said, turning and heading back to class.

After Ariel left, Alex began to feel immensely happy. Not only had she managed to make two more friends, she also managed to make friends with a fellow psychic kid. Composing herself, she headed back to class and back to where AJ was waiting for her.

"Alex, what took you so long? I ran out of ideas for things to add to the poster," AJ whined.

"I'm sorry. Maybe next time, you can come with me and hold my hand," Alex said jokingly.

"Yuck! No thank you," AJ said, laughing and playfully shoving Alex.

As AJ and Alex worked to finish their poster, Alex couldn't help but think about everything that'd been happening over the course of the morning. She was able to make five new friends and she got some information about her new mentor. Now all she had to do was wait for Matt and Jeff and tell them about everything.

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I actually had it as an idea to introduce more people with abilities like the ones the three Hardys have, so I feel that this is a good start as far as introducing the other characters. Read and review please. =)**


	5. Calm Down

**I had to spend a bit of time thinking about the kind of psychic power I wanted Matt to have, so I'm happy with the power I picked for him. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**

**Matt**

Matt sat in his English class with a look of boredom on his face. All around him, people were talking about some of the things they had done over the weekend. He was one of the only people in class that had decided to keep to themselves. The teacher had given everyone an assignment to write a paper about goals and hopes they had for the new year with the option of working in pairs or groups. Matt opted to work by himself, seeing as how he didn't really know any of the other students. He had been approached by some of the girls in class, who seemed to be flirting with him, but he just waved off their advances and decided to focus on class. He finished his own paper early, so he decided to read through one of his copies of 'The Walking Dead' graphic novels. 'Man, I always thought it'd be easy to make friends with normies. Boy, was I wrong,' Matt thought as he flipped through the pages of his graphic novel.

After finishing his reading, he put his book back in his bookbag and decided to sketch a few random drawings in the sketchbook he had with him. He never really felt he was good at drawing like Jeff and Alex, but people told him that his drawings were pretty good. He was midway through a drawing of a snake attacking a wolf he was working on when he had an idea. 'If Alex can use her powers whenever she feels like, I should be able to do the same thing too. After all, I am the oldest," Matt thought. So, taking a deep breath and clearing his mind, he tapped into his ability. Looking around at all of his classmates and at the teacher, he saw all of the auras of everyone in the class. Matt's ability centered around being able to see the auras of people around him and being able to slightly change the emotion a person was feeling if he wanted to. The auras of everyone in the class seemed to all be the same, with colors ranging from pink to yellow to orange to sky blue. From seeing this, Matt came to the conclusion that everyone was feeling either really happy or sleepy. He was about to zone out of his zone until he saw that two of his fellow classmates had auras that were really deep shades of blue. 'Damn, whoever those kids are, they look like they need to be cheered up big time,' Matt thought.

Collecting his things, he got up from his seat and moved over to where the two kids were sitting. Upon a closer look, Matt saw that the two kids were two girls. One of the girls had blonde hair with pink and black streaks in it and was wearing a black shirt with a camouflage skull design, a camo mini-skirt, a pair of fishnet stockings and a pair of knee-high combat boots. The other girl had long brown hair and was wearing a white t-shirt and a jean vest, a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of cowgirl boots. Matt was a bit nervous to sit with both of the girls, but he took a breath and launched into introducing himself.

"Uh, hi girls. My name is Matt and I couldn't help but notice that you two seem a bit down about something. Do you guys mind if I sit here?" Matt said.

"Uh, sure. Just grab that empty chair over there," the blonde said, motioning towards an empty chair.

Sitting down, Matt couldn't help but notice that the auras of the two girls had started to gain flecks of pink. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how are you two ladies feeling today?" Matt asked.

"I guess you could say that we've been feeling better. Today's just not a really good day for us," the brunette said.

"Yeah, we've just got some bs here to deal with as far as assignments goes. Btdubs, I'm Ashley and my friend here is Mickie," Ashley said.

"Pleasure to meet you both. Now, exactly what kind of assignment is it that you guys have that's making you two look so down?" Matt asked.

"We have to deliver an oral presentation on our take on the women's rights movement that happened in the 1960s," Mickie said.

"And that's a bad thing? To me, the presentation that you two have will probably be the best one in your class," Matt said.

"That's not the problem we're having. We're worried about the fact that once we get in front of the class, we're just gonna forget everything, even though we've got an awesome presentation ready," Ashley said.

"It seems like you both just have some stage fright issues. If it makes you both feel any better, you could both hug me. I've always felt that hugs were an awesome way to calm people down," Matt said, standing.

Shrugging, Ashley and Mickie stood from their seats and walked around to hug Matt.

"Matt, we both appreciate this, but I don't think even a hug will-" Ashley was stopped in mid-sentence as she slowly started to feel calmer.

"Wow, Matt. I guess you weren't kidding when you said that a hug would help calm us down," Mickie said.

"Well, I've been told that my hugs are magic," Matt said, smiling as he saw Ashley and Mickie's auras change colors from the deep blue they originally were to a pale green with pink flecks.

"Now, do you two think you'll be able to give that presentation you have later today?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. Thanks a lot for this Matt. I know that we've only just met today, but I hope that we can become really good friends," Ashley said, pulling away from Matt and sitting back down.

"Speaking of friends, we should introduce you to our friends at lunch. I'm sure they'd all love to meet you," Mickie said.

"Sounds like fun. I can't wait," Matt said, smiling.

As the rest of his English class went by, Matt sat and talked to his new friends about what to expect at Palm Hills High and about some of the ways that local teenagers decided to spend time outside of school. He started to feel better about the fact that he had managed to make friends of his own. He was especially excited with the prospect of making more new friends when lunch came. All he had to do was be patient and wait.

**OK, I know that this chapter that mainly focuses on Matt is short, but I mainly just wanted to touch on revealing his power. The next chapter is all about Jeff. Read and review please. =)**


	6. Ease The Pain

**I know I got a review from one person asking what Jeff's psychic power is (please keep in mind that all three Hardys can see and communicate with spirits of the dead), so this chapter explains what it is. I hope you guys enjoy. =)**

**Jeff**

Jeff couldn't believe his luck that he had gotten put in PE as a his second class of the day. He was on a bit of a self-confidence high after his success with making friends in his first class and he was feeling a bit more open to making more. He had luckily brought a set of clothes that he could change into for PE, so while he was getting dressed, he couldn't help but notice that there were actually two spirits in the locker room with him. He looked around and found that he was the only person in the locker room, so he cleared his throat and started to talk.

"Hey, you two. What are you doing in here?" Jeff asked.

One of the spirits looked at Jeff in wonder and asked "Wait a minute. You can actually see us?"

"Obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't really be talking to you guys right now," Jeff said.

"This is so amazing. None of the people here have ever been able to see us," the other spirit said.

"Well, it's kind of a blessing and a curse rolled into one. Before we go any further with this, can I ask what you guys' names are? It'd be easier for me to help you two when the time is right," Jeff said.

"Oh sure. My name is Thomas and my friend here is Henry," Thomas said.

"OK. If you don't mind me asking, how was it that you two died?" Jeff asked.

"You may not know this, but we were actually victims of the 1957 bus crash that killed most of the Palm Hills HIgh football team," Henry said.

"I think I remember reading something about that when I was doing research on this school with my brother and sister," Jeff said. "What happened to you guys has actually been called one of the worst tragedies to ever hit this school."

"Yeah. It just sucks that we haven't exactly been able to pass on. I'm almost certain that there are other kids here like you, but none have made the move to try to help us out. Maybe you can be the one to help us," Henry said.

"I'm really sorry guys, but I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to helping spirits move on. That's more my little sister's forte," Jeff said.

"Your little sister? You mean to say that you have relatives that have abilities like yours?" Thomas asked curiously.

"Yeah, but it's just my older brother and my little sister. Just wait until this class is over, and then I can find my sister and she can help you two move on," Jeff said.

"OK. We're holding you to this, kid," Thomas said, as he and Henry vanished.

Jeff sighed and left the locker room a few minutes later after having the chance to clear his mind. He couldn't help but think that he had actually seen two spirits on his first day at his new school. He started to wonder if Matt and Alex had seen any spirits yet, but was pulled away from his thoughts by someone calling him.

"Jeff! Jeff! Over here!"

Jeff snapped his head up to see that Candice was calling him over to where she was standing with Amy, Melina, Zack, and Cody. He was a bit surprised to see that his newly made friends were waiting for him, and once he made his way over to where his friends were, they waited for class to start.

"Jeff, I think while you're here, we should introduce you to one of our other friends you didn't get the chance to meet this morning. Jeff, this is Cody. Cody, this is Jeff," Amy said, making the introductions.

"Nice to meet you," Cody said, holding out his hand to Jeff.

Jeff actually took a breath and, trying to keep control on his own ability, shook Cody's hand. "Nice to meet you too man. What grade are you in?"

"I'm a freshman, so technically, I'm one of the youngest people in our merry circle of friends," Cody said.

"That's cool. I've actually got a sister who started here with me today that's a freshman too. I've also got a brother who's a junior here," Jeff said.

"Oh really? Awesome. I've got a brother myself who's a junior here too. It must be nice having a sister. What's her schedule like? Maybe I've had a class with her this morning," Cody said.

"Umm, she did say that she's got English 9 with Mr. Cole as her first period. Maybe you have seen her around. Her name's Alex," Jeff said.

"Wait. Alex is your sister?" Cody asked, a slight blush starting to form on his face.

"Yeah. I know she may seem a bit weird or hyper, but she's got somewhat of a short attention span most of the time," Jeff said. "Why do you ask?"

"Umm, n-n-no reason," Cody said, looking away as his face started to get redder.

Elbowing Jeff, Candice leaned in and whispered "I think Cody might like your sister. Don't tell him I said so though."

After hearing Candice say this, Jeff started to grin and then laugh at this. He actually couldn't wait to tell Alex the news; that is, if she didn't already know. The group spent a little more time talking before the teacher called class to order.

"OK students. Today's the start of the second week of PE, so I want you guys to start by running for the next 30 minutes," the gym teacher, Mr. Jarrett, said.

As soon as he blew his whistle, the class started to run around the gym while time had ticked down on the timer set in the scoreboard. Jeff was on a roll, keeping pace with his friends while they all asked him about how things were like back in his old home town. Jeff was actually starting to feel more loose around the people that were slowly becoming good friends with him. 'Wow. I cannot believe how easy this whole 'make friends with other people' thing is. I can't wait to meet up with Matt and Alex and let them know how things have been going for me,' Jeff thought. By the time the 30 minutes had ended, he was feeling energized and ready for the rest of the class's workouts.

"OK class, really nice hustle from you all. Especially you, Mr. Hardy. Now, the activity we're going to be doing today is soccer. So, I want everyone to split off into two separate teams," Mr. Jarrett said.

Jeff joined the team that Amy, Candice, Melina, Zack, and Cody were on. Mr. Jarrett blew his whistle to let the class know that the game had begun. The other team had started by kicking the ball to the other end of the field, where one of Jeff's fellow teammates had started moving the ball down the field. The ball was being passed from person to person on Jeff's team until the ball had been passed to Jeff. Jeff ran while kicking the ball and, taking aim at the other team's goal, he kicked the ball, sending it flying into the other team's goal and scoring a goal for his team in the process. He was showered with praise from his teammates about scoring the goal for their team while Mr. Jarrett got the ball and took it back to the center of the field. Mr. Jarrett got the ball and brought back to the center of the field, blowing his whistle for the game to start again. The other team got control of the ball and was moving it down the field, when someone on the other team had slid and accidentaly kicked Amy in the ankle. The game had been stopped when everyone on the field saw that Amy was grabbing her ankle.

"Move aside everyone. Give her some space," Mr. Jarrett said, making his way through the crowd of people starting to form around Amy. "Amy, are you okay?"

"Agghhh! Hell no! I got slid-kicked in my fucking ankle!" Amy shouted, as tears started to form in her eyes.

"Do you think you can stand up so that I can help you back inside to the nurse's office?" Mr. Jarrett asked.

"No. I'm going to need someone to carry me inside," Amy said.

"OK. Let me help you up," Mr. Jarrett said.

Jeff couldn't stand to see one of his new friends hurt, so without thinking, he blurted "Mr. Jarrett, I can help her to the nurse's office."

"Are you sure Jeff?" Mr. Jarrett asked.

"Yeah. I don't want you have to leave the class. Come on Amy," Jeff said, helping Amy onto his back.

"Thanks Jeff. I'll show you where to go from here," Amy said.

Walking away from the class, Jeff carried Amy back inside the school building and instead of heading towards the main office, which was next door to the nurse's office, he headed back towards the locker room.

"Jeff? You're going the wrong way. The nurse's office is next door to the main office," Amy said.

"Do you mind waiting for me to go check something right quick? I, uh, wanted to go check my phone to see if Matt or Alex texted me," Jeff said.

"OK. But, try to make it quick," Amy said.

Jeff headed down the hallway to the locker room and made there, all while Jeff was thinking about something serious. 'I really hope I have lunch with Alex. I know she's gonna kick my ass over this, but I really want to help Amy,' Jeff thought. Jeff sat Amy down on one of the benches and stepped back. 'I'm going to do this and be as quick about it as I can. That way, I can find Alex and get her to help me,' Jeff thought.

"Jeff, is something wrong? You look worried about something," Amy said.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I just, uh, wanted to know if you would mind if I rubbed your ankle. That could help get some of the tension out of it," Jeff said.

"Uh sure. Just don't hurt me, OK?" Amy said.

"Don't worry. When I'm done with you, you won't feel a thing," Jeff said.

Taking a breath, Jeff cleared his mind and got to work on rubbing Amy's hurt ankle. He then tapped into his ability and, seeing his hands start to glow, he started to rub away all of the pain and tension in her ankle and felt it move into him. He gritted his teeth and winced as he felt his ankle start to hurt. Jeff stopped and pulled his hands away.

"There. Does that feel any better?" Jeff asked.

Confused, Amy stepped down on the floor and walked around a bit before saying "Uh, yeah. Yeah, it does feel better. Feels a whole lot better now. Thanks Jeff," Amy said, hugging Jeff, which made him stagger and step on his hurt ankle.

"No problem Amy. Now, I think you should leave before the class comes back in," Jeff said.

"Sure thing. I'll see you after class. And, make sure you meet up with me and the others so that we can head to lunch together," Amy said, speeding out of the locker room.

Once Amy was gone, Jeff sat down on the bench and sighed. 'I can't believe that my ability makes me hurt so much. I wish I could switch with abilities with Matt or Alex, but I guess there's a reason why I have this 'talent'. Talent, what a stupid way to describe what I have. It's more like a damn curse,' Jeff said, as he tried rubbing his ankle to try to get rid of his pain.

The reason why Jeff hated the ability he had was because he could actually absorb any and all pain a person was feeling. He didn't realize that he could do this until a few days after their accident. One day, Alex was complaining of a stomachache. He decided to rub her stomach, only to see that his hands had started to glow one minute and the next, he was rubbing his own stomach, while Alex said that she was feeling better. When she saw that Jeff was hurting, she told their dad, but seeing as how everything they did had no effect, they took Jeff to their mentor. Upon explaining what happened, their mentor told them that Jeff has an ability known as psychoempathy, meaning that he can actually take away any pain that a person is feeling. After drinking a special medicine their mentor made, Jeff started to feel better, but at the same time, he felt upset that he had an ability that would actually let him steal away any pain a person was in.

He sat on the locker room bench for a few more minutes in thought before standing and limping over to his gym locker and changing his clothes. He tried walking around without limping and was met with a little success, so he decided to head out and sit outside of the gym. While he waited for the period to end and for his friends, he pulled out his phone and decided to text Alex.

_'Sis, I need to meet up with you at lunch.'_

_ 'Sure Jeffy. Is something wrong? ZOMG, are people being mean to you?'_

_ 'No. I just saw two spirits before my gym class and I need you to help me send them off.'_

_ 'Kk. I'll be sure to meet up with you when I can find Matt (provided he hasn't been swallowed by any of the pretty girls here). X3'_

_ 'LOL You so funny, you know that Lexi?'_

_'Yepp indeedy I do. But it's part of why you, Matt, and Daddy love me so much. =* I'll see you at lunch.'_

Smiling down at the last text he got from Alex, he sat back and decided to think about how his day was going. He had come to school in hopes that nothing out of the ordinary would happen, but he suddenly felt naive for thinking so. He almost had a temptation to go find Alex hisself, but upon hearing his classmates come back in the building, he decided to sit and wait for them all to change so that he could be with his friends again.

He started to think about the possibility of meeting more people at lunch, when he was ripped out of his thoughts by Amy and the other girls coming out of the girls' locker room talking.

"I kid you guys not. It's like the minute he started rubbing my ankle, it just stopped hurting," Amy said.

"Well, maybe I can get Jeff to give me a massage some time," Candice said, laughing.

"Hey Jeff. Thanks again for rubbing my ankle for me. I don't know what you did, but whatever it was, it made me feel a hell of a lot better," Amy said.

"No problem, Amy. Anything I can do to help a friend when they need it," Jeff said smiling.

"Aww. You're such a nice guy Jeff," Candice said.

"So I've been told," Jeff said.

"Hey, I'm just curious. Why didn't you come back to class after you helped Amy? We nearly lost without you," Melina said.

"Well, I saw that there wasn't much time left in the period, so I just decided to hang around in the locker room," Jeff said.

"Aww man. I wish I could've hurt myself so I didn't have to play through the rest of that game. I kept kicking the ball to the other team by accident. I've never felt so embarrassed before in my life," Melina said blushing.

"Don't worry Mel. I'm sure no one'll remember in a few more minutes, give or take an hour," Candice said, patting Melina on the back.

All Jeff could do was laugh at his new friends while they waited for everyone else. He decided to ignore the pain he was feeling so that he wouldn't worry everyone. Now all he had to do was wait a few more minutes and he'd be able to let Alex and Matt know that things were going fine for him.

**I hope everyone can follow along with the whole explanation I gave about Jeff's power. More so, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I had to spend a lot of time mapping out all of the details. Read and review please. =)**


	7. Took My Breath Away

Lunch had started by the time Matt made his way to the cafeteria with Ashley and Mickie. They got their food and looked around for a place to sit.

"Hey guys, let's head outside. It's such a nice day and I need a break from being crowded up indoors," Ashley said.

Matt and Mickie followed Ashley outside and they were able to find a table that was near a big tree. Once they had all sat down, Ashley took out her phone and decided to text the others to let them know they were outside. After she finished that, she and Mickie decided to talk to Matt for a bit.

"So Matt, how have you been liking our school?" Mickie asked.

"It's pretty good here. Next to you two, I've made two other friends today," Matt said.

"That's good. It must've been nerve-wracking as hell to have to move to a new place and start at a new school. Especially after classes have already started," Mickie said.

"Haha. Well, honestly, I wasn't really all that nervous. Neither was my little sister, I just had to worry about my younger brother," Matt said.

"You have younger siblings? That's so cute. What are their names?" Ashley asked.

"My brother's name is Jeff and my sister's name is Alexis, but we like to call her Alex. You both'll actually get the chance to meet the two of them. Their students out here at the school with us," Matt said.

"Really? That's seriously the most adorable thing ever," Ashley said.

"Well, thank you for saying that, Ash. They'll probably be trying to find me, so hopefully, I'll be able to introduce you both to them," Matt said.

"Sounds like it'll be really awesome to meet them. I can't wait for them to come meet up with us," Mickie said excitedly.

* * *

"Thanks a lot for helping me out with our poster, Alex. I was afraid I was gonna have to turn in some half-assed attempt at a project," AJ said.

"No problem. It's the least I could do to help. Especially since you were, like, the only person that would talk to me during the whole class," Alex said.

"I can't see why anyone wasn't talking to you. I mean, you're seriously one of the coolest people here. Next to my BFF Kaitlyn, you're one of the only other people I can actually geek out with and it won't be awkward," AJ said.

"Haha. Well, my geekiness is actually influenced by my brothers and our friends back in North Carolina. They would always watch stuff like Pokemon and Transformers and they'd always read Batman and other kinds of comic books, so they decided to let me into their geeky little bubble. And now I'm at the point where the minute I see anything that has either Doctor Who or Batman or Watchmen or anything along those lines, I start to spaz and my rabid geek side comes out," Alex said, smiling.

"And that, my new friend, is what makes you a really awesome person," AJ said, linking arms with Alex.

"I do my best without even trying. I guess it's all natural," Alex said, as she and AJ shared a laugh.

* * *

"Are you all sure that your friends will like me? It seems like everybody's been going out of their way to avoid the new kid today," Jeff said as he made his way to sit where his friends were leading him.

"Absolutely. I mean, you're already such an awesome guy, so I'm nothing but positive that they'll like you," Amy said.

"Just like when you were 'nothing but positive' that we'd like those brownies you so kindly made for us that made us sick," Candice said jokingly.

"Hey! For the record, I had no clue that I used too much baking powder and I had no idea I accidentally knocked over some dish soap into the batter. I made it up to you guys with the ice cream, didn't I?" Amy said.

"Yeah, after you practically forced us to sit down and eat it. Which, btdubs, was way better than the brownies," Cody said.

"Well, thank you Cody. Maybe next time I decide to make sweets, I'll just bring them to school for you so that you can share them with your brother," Amy said.

"That won't be very nice, Amy," Melina said, pouting.

"Haha. Don't worry. I'll make sure to share with you all," Amy said laughing.

Jeff laughed along with his friends and thought about getting the opportunity to meet more new people. He was still hoping that somehow Matt or Alex would find him so that he could let them know about his encounter with the two spirits from his gym class. So he was a bit surprised to see Matt already sitting with two other girls. Walking ahead of the others in his group, he headed towards Matt.

"Hey Matt. Since when did you become such a lady's man?" Jeff asked jokingly.

"Shut it Skittles. These are just two friends that are in my English class. Mickie, Ashley, this is my charming baby brother Jeff. Jeff, these two kind ladies are Mickie and Ashley," Matt said.

"Nice to meet you both," Jeff said.

"NIce to meet you too Jeff. And I can see that you already made friends with some of the other crazies in our group," Ashley said as Amy and the others walked over.

"Really Ash? You've got some nerve calling us crazy when sometimes you have your own moments of craziness," Amy said.

"Yeah, like when you were bouncing off walls just because you saw a kitten in the halls one day," Melina said.

"OK, for the record, I can't help it if I love cats. They're so adorable, especially when they're kittens," Ashley said smiling.

"Well, whatever the reason, everyone in our group is some type of crazy. Just so you two know ahead of time so that you can try to run away now," Cody said.

"Haha. Don't worry. All of our friends back in North Carolina were kinda crazy, so we don't mind at all," Matt said.

As Matt and Jeff talked with their newly made friends, more made their way to where the others were sitting. Amy handled all of the necessary introductions, introducing the others to Matt and Jeff. They soon learned that the others were Kaitlyn, Ted, Chris, Trish, John, Randy, Daniel, Derrick, Evan, and Phil, who wanted to be called Punk.

"Well, I for one can say it's awesome to meet you guys," Matt said.

"It's awesome to meet two new people too. But the thing is, this isn't everyone. Punk, have you seen AJ and Maria around anywhere?" Daniel asked.

"I know for a fact that AJ's on her way here, but maybe she got lost somewhere or possibly stepped on. And Maria had to hang behind in Drama to talk with Mr. Sandow," Punk said.

"I wonder why. She's like his best student in that class," Trish said.

"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late, but there was a bit of a jam in the halls," AJ said breathlessly.

"AJ, girl, you look exhausted. You look like you just ran a zombie 5K with no water," Ted said.

"We had to circle around the school because there was a huge jam. But, before I get carried away, everyone, this is Alex. Alex, this is my group of friends who will have to take the time to do their own personal introductions because I am too tired," AJ said, flopping down next to Kaitlyn.

"Hi everybody. It's awesome to meet you all. Hi Matty, hi Jeffy," Alex said as she went to hug her brothers.

"So this is your younger sister Matt?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah. And I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking that there's no way in hell she could be a teenager, but she's just the kind of person that doesn't show her aging that much," Matt said.

"What Matty said is true. I don't really show my age that well. I mean, it's actually happened a few times today that people have asked me if I was really 10," Alex said.

"Well I think I know why people ask you that," Candice said.

"Why's that, um, Candice, right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, you're right. And the reason why is because you're so freakin' adorable. Plus, you seem like a really nice person," Candice said.

"Well, thank you Candice. Usually the only people that tell me that are my brothers and my dad, so it's cool to hear that from a new friend, especially one as nice as you," Alex said smiling.

"Aww! You are just being so freakin' cute right now, I just wanna hug you until you can barely breathe," Candice said hyperly.

"Whoa Candi! Just take a breath and calm down. You guys'll have to forgive Candice. She's got a severe weakness for cute things so that's why she seems kinda psycho when it comes to your sister," Chris said.

"We'll make sure to keep that in mind in the future. But if it makes her feel any better, it used to happen at least once a week back in North Carolina, one of our friends would get psycho whenever Lexi would do something they deemed cute," Matt said, hugging Alex.

"Yeah. Like I remember one Halloween, we had Alex dress up as a Pikachu and she got a whole mess of candy too. And this was when she was 5," Jeff said.

"Aww! That sounds even more adorable! You guys definitely have to show me pictures when you guys can," Candice said excitedly.

"Haha, we'll be sure to do so, but I kinda have to talk to Alex and Matt about something private, if you guys don't mind," Jeff said.

"Oh sure, we don't mind," Amy said.

"Thanks. We won't be gone long," Jeff said, standing and pulling Matt and Alex towards the school building with him.

Once the three were out of earshot, Amy said "OK, I don't know about you guys, but I seriously think those three are some of the coolest people here. And they've only been here for just today."

"I agree. Alex is definitely a cool girl and her brothers are pretty awesome too. Maybe we should let them be permanent parts of our circle," Ashley said.

* * *

As soon as Matt, Jeff, and Alex were in the school building, Jeff led them to an empty hallway.

"OK Jeff. What's so important that we had to get ripped away from all of our awesome new friends?" Alex asked.

"Well, there's kinda two things I gotta talk to you two about," Jeff said, staring at the ground.

"I have a feeling this is something spirit related, so lay it on us," Matt said.

"OK. Henry, Thomas, I'm with my sister. You two can come out now," Jeff shouted.

"It's about time. We were getting bored waiting for you," Henry said, as he and Thomas appeared.

"Plus, he wouldn't stop pacing around being worried about whether you were really being truthful about helping us pass on," Thomas said.

"Anyway, moving on, thanks for doing this for us. We're ready to be united with our friends and families again," Henry said.

"It's no problem. Now, I just need you two to stand in front of me," Alex said, which Henry and Thomas did. "Now, I need my pendulum and let me do my work."

Taking her pendulum out of her skirt pocket, Alex began to swing it around all while she said a series of words, only loud enough for her to hear. As she swung it around, the heart-shaped stone began to glow an array of different colors. Once she had finished her chant, she stopped spinning and watched as a shaft of light shone down on the two spirits. The light circled them, causing Henry and Thomas to look up smiling as they began their ascent upward. Before they were completely gone, Henry looked to Alex and said "Thank you so much for doing this for us, little one."

"No problem. Have a restful and peaceful eternity you guys!" Alex said, before the two were completely gone.

Once the spirits were gone, Matt turned to Jeff and asked "That was reason number one. What's the second reason?"

"The second reason is that I may have kinda used my ability during second period," Jeff said.

"Could that be the reason why you keep trying to hide the fact that your ankle's killing you right now?" Alex said.

"Yeah. I only did it to help a friend out. You see, Amy got hurt bad while we were playing soccer, so I decided to use my ability to help her feel better," Jeff said, staring at the ground again.

"It's OK that you decided to help, but you should learn to be a bit more careful with how you choose to use them. Now, come over here. Just be lucky that I know how to use my pendulum to heal stuff like this," Alex said, as Jeff limped over to her. Crouching down to be level with his ankle, she lifted the still glowing stone and, placing it on his ankle, said a few words and watched as the stone glowed red. Jeff hissed at first, feeling the stone heat up, but then let out a sigh of relief when he began to feel his ankle feel better. Once Alex saw the glow in the stone disappear, she lifted it from Jeff's ankle and put it back in her pocket. "Does that feel any better?"

Taking the chance to walk around to make sure he was feeling fine, he looked at Alex and said "Yeah it does. Thanks so much Lexi-chu. You really are one of the best sisters in the world."

"No problem Skittles. I'm sure if I was hurting, you'd do the same for me," Alex said.

"Now let's head back out to the others. They're probably curious about why we left," Matt said.

"That's not the only reason why you wanna head back. You wanna go talk to Amy some more," Alex said, causing Matt to blush and Jeff to laugh.

"That's not true at all Alex," Matt said.

"Yeah Matty. We can tell from the way your face is slowly turning into a tomato," Jeff said laughing.

"Let's just go back to our friends while we still have time to talk to them all," Matt said, speeding away.

Once the three made their way back to where they left their friends, they saw that another person had joined up with their friends. Upon seeing the three, Trish and Mickie waved them over to them.

"Oh you guys. You have perfect timing. We have another person we want to introduce you to. Maria, these are the three kids that just started today, Matt, Jeff, and their sister Alex. You guys, this is our friend, Maria Kanellis," Melina said.

"Hi Maria. I'm Matt," Matt said.

"Nice to meet you Maria. My name is Alex and, yes, I do look pretty young to be in high school, but I'm a freshman," Alex said, shaking Maria's hand.

Jeff was awestruck at his first glimpse of Maria. He was enamored by the fact that she was so beautiful, from the way her dyed red hair fell down her shoulders to the way she wore her outfit, which was a pink and black striped shirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of pink Converses. He didn't know what to say, so he felt a jolt of shock when he felt Alex shaking him.

"Jeff? Are you OK? Maria's been trying to talk to you for the past few minutes now," Alex said.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Hi Maria, my name's Jeff," Jeff said.

"Nice to meet you Jeff. The same goes for your brother and sister too. You guys seem awesome already and I can't wait to get to know you all better," Maria said smiling, leaving Jeff a blushing mess.

The group talked more, while all Jeff could do was sit in wonder and sneak a few glances at Maria. He had a feeling that a relationship with her would never work, but he was at least glad to have her as a friend. It barely seemed like hours passed, so it was a surprise when the group had to split up and head to their own separate classes. As Jeff made his way to his third class of the day with Chris, Ted, Zack, Punk, and Daniel, all he could think about was Maria Kanellis and how it would feel to be with her.

**I've finally gotten around to introducing Maria into the story and she's gonna play a big part in some of the later events of the story. Read and review please. =)**


	8. Fun in Art

**Jeff**

Third period seemed to pass by in a blur for Jeff. He sat in his Algebra class, barely focused on what the teacher was talking about. His thoughts were occupied by thinking about Maria. He had never felt this way about any other girl he'd seen before, so parts of him were wondering what it was that seemed to make her so special. All he knew was that he wanted to be with her, but he had the feeling it was an impossibility. He sighed as he pointlessly looked down at the Algebra textbook he was given at the beginning of class. He was already something along the lines of a math genius, but it never hurt to study over the material.

Jeff hadn't even realized that the bell was ringing, so when he finally heard it, he hurriedly grabbed his things and sped out of the room until he bumped into a person trying to leave as well.

"Ouch! Damnit, can't you watch where you're going?" the person asked, annoyed.

"Well, you'll have to forgive me. My head ain't exactly in the right place," Jeff said, standing.

After standing and getting his bearings, Jeff saw that the person seemed to be as out of place in California as he did. He saw that the person was another boy and that this boy stood out for a number of reasons: He had short black hair that had a patch of deep red dyed into it and he was wearing a pair of black-and-red striped arm warmers, a black button-down polo shirt with a black and red tie, black pants with chains, and a pair of red and black Vans shoes. The boy just stared back at Jeff with a look of confusion and finally asked "What is it now? Is there something in my hair?"

"No no, that's not it. It's just-"

"You're not really used to seeing people that stand out in a crowd, are you?"

"Um, yeah. How'd you guess?" Jeff asked.

"It's pretty much written all over your face. My name's Kevin, Kevin Thorn, and before you say anything else, I know about you and your brother and your sister," Kevin said.

"Wait, how do you know about my brother and sister? And better yet, how exactly do you know about me?" Jeff asked.

"My girlfriend Ariel told me about her telepathic encounter with your sister earlier in the day. If it's any help, I could take you three to the person that's been helping me and Ariel hone our powers. Because, if your sister's any indication, you three need all of the help you can get," Kevin said smirking.

"Hey now. Lexi can't help it that she can't really control her power. We got endowed with these 'abilities' when we were really young," Jeff said.

"It sounds like it's a long story, so I'll tell you what. You and your other two siblings meet up with me and Ariel in front of the school at the end of the day and we can take you guys to our training place. That sound like a plan?" Kevin asked.

"Sure. Thanks a lot for this," Jeff said.

"No problem. Now if I were you, I'd be heading to class now. Mr. C can be a bit of a dick when he catches students out after the bell rings," Kevin said, leaving.

As Jeff sped off to his last class of the day, he couldn't help but think that it was a success that he had been able to meet another person with abilities like the ones he, Matt, and Alex had. Now all he had to do was wait until the end of the day to meet up with Kevin again.

* * *

**Alex**

"Hey Cody! You're in my art class too?" Alex said, taking a seat at the same table as Cody.

"Huh? Uh yeah. I've always liked drawing, so I figured I'd sign up for a class that lets me draw all during the period. Not to mention, this class is at the end of the day too," Cody said.

"Yeah, I guess that is an upside to being in this class too. I just think it's awesome that I can be in here with some friendly faces," Alex said.

"Haha. Well, we're actually some of the only students in this class that really care about trying to make really awesome art in here. Mostly everyone else is in here just to get easy A's," Kaitlyn said.

"Not to mention, Mr. Foley is a really chill teacher too. He's pretty much cool with us socializing during the period as long as we do our work," Daniel said.

The four talked more until a panting student burst through the doorway seconds before the bell rang.

"Success! I beat the bell!" Jeff shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. It wasn't until he heard the laughing of other students and Mr. Foley clearing his throat did he look and start to blush. "Pardon my lateness sir."

"Haha. It's no problem, Mr…" Mr. Foley said.

"Oh, my name's Jeff Hardy. I'm the new student in your class," Jeff said.

"Ah yes, Jeff Hardy. I see that your sister is in here too. She's already in the back with Cody and some of the other students, who I'm assuming are some friends that she's made," Mr. Foley said.

"OK. I'll make sure to do my best in here," Jeff said, heading towards Alex.

"Well well, Jeff. As far as tardy blockers go, you've definitely got the top one in my book," Alex said, laughing.

"Not funny. I got held up talking to someone in the halls," Jeff said, collapsing into an empty seat next to Daniel.

"Don't worry. We don't really have any major projects to work on now, so today's pretty much a free day to do what we want," Kaitlyn said.

"Which is a relief. I've got an assload of work to do for Mr. Levesque anyways," Daniel said.

"Danny, I told you when we were all registering for classes not to choose anything too tricky for you to take. Why don't you do the smart thing and just transfer out of that class?" Kaitlyn said.

"Because Katie, you should know my policy. Once I start something, I have to go through with it," Daniel said.

"And we all know how well that policy works. Like that time you had signed up for ballet classes," Kaitlyn said.

"Hey! That wasn't even me that willingly signed up for it. My mom made me sign up for those lessons!" Daniel said.

"And this is what a day of class with the two of them in a class together is like," Cody said laughing.

"I think it's funny that they argue like this. It's like some people say 'A person is never really your friend unless they tease you about something'," Alex said.

"She's right Cody. So don't worry about Kaitlyn and Daniel. We're used to having friends that lovingly harass us and one another," Jeff said laughing.

"That's a pretty interesting way of looking at a friendship. I guess you could say that ours is like that too," Cody said.

"Well, it seems like it is. After all, with friends as awesome as yours, I'm sure you all must be really close," Alex said, causing Cody to blush.

"Yeah, we are. Most of us have known each other since we were in pre-school, so it's almost like we're one big and crazy family," Cody said.

"'Crazy' is right up our alley. So don't change anything about you guys. It'd just make things boring," Jeff said.

"Sure thing. So, Alex, I was wondering if maybe you'd wanna work on a little duo drawing until class is over," Cody said, turning to Alex.

"OK. I've never really got to work on group drawings before, so this seems like fun," Alex said excitedly.

"Now, you can pick the subject and we'll draw from that," Cody said.

"Okays. Um, how about we draw a picture of Batman and Robin?" Alex suggested.

"Sure thing, now let's get started," Cody said, as he and Alex began to start their drawing.

Alex watched Cody while he worked and couldn't help but notice that he looked a little tense. Taking the chance to look up, only to see Jeff talking to Kaitlyn and Daniel, Alex took the opportunity to poke around in Cody's thoughts.

_'Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod. Possibly the prettiest girl in this whole school has been talking to me all day and is sitting right next to me and I've just been playing the role of a mute monk. Maybe if I hang around with Alex some more I can open up enough to be able to ask her out on a date. Oh, who am I kidding? If I even attempted to try to do that, I'd probably just screw things up…"_

Pulling out of Cody's mind, Alex automatically didn't know what to think. She wasn't exactly sure to be shocked over the fact that Cody thought she was the prettiest girl in school or the fact that he wanted to take her on a date. All she knew was that she suddenly started to feel her face burn and turn a slight shade of red. She decided to try forgetting what she had just heard by throwing her focus into her part of the drawing, but it didn't seem to work. When it was nearly time for classes to end for the day, Mr. Foley let everyone know about their first assignment, which was to do a life-study of anything they chose to bring in. Curiously, Alex looked over at Cody's drawing and saw that he hadn't really made as much progress on his drawing of Batman as she did with Robin.

"Um, Cody. I think we should work on this some more another day. I barely made any progress with Robin," Alex said.

"Good idea. I shoulda been working on my half, but I was distracted thinking about, uh, the homework I have to work on. I'll hang onto it so that we can work at it later," Cody said.

"OK. I guess we should be heading out now, seeing as how the day's over now," Alex said.

"Yeah. I need to meet up with my brother Dustin anyways. It was nice meeting you Alex. You too Jeff. I'll see you guys tomorrow," Cody said, speeding away.

After parting ways with Kaitlyn and Daniel, Alex and Jeff walked out to find Matt.

"So Lexi. You mind telling me why it is that your face looks like you decided to don red war paint?" Jeff asked.

"Huh? Uh, no reason," Alex said.

"Uh-huh. Well if there's no reason to it, then why does it look like your face is getting redder and redder?" Jeff asked.

"It may have to do with the fact that I sorta, kinda poked around in Cody's thoughts for a bit during class," Alex said, her blush getting deeper.

"And is there a reason why young Cody's thoughts have you turning redder than the red M&M?" Jeff asked, waving his hand.

"Uggghhh! I swear Skittles, this curiosity of yours will be your doom one day. But if you really must know, I pretty much heard from Cody's thoughts that he's got a huge crush on me, even though we just met today," Alex said.

"Aww. Is that all? This is so cute. Wait till Matt finds out about you and your future hubby," Jeff said, teasingly.

"Don't tell Matt! If you do, then I'll tell him that it was you that ate his Snickers the other day," Alex said.

"Le gasp! How'd you even know about th-Wait. You were poking around in my head the day I ate it, weren't you?" Jeff asked.

"Yupp. So unless you want Matty to put you in a headlock, you'll keep this a secret," Alex said, shooting Jeff her sad puppy look.

"Those eyes! Fine. Like Gandalf the Grey wisely said, I'll be sure to 'keep it secret, keep it safe'," Jeff said.

"Thanks Skittles. By the way, if you want any chance at trying to be with Maria, I don't think the quickest way to sweep her off her feet will be quoting Lord of the Rings," Alex said, laughing.

"You never know sis. Some girls dig guys that are into stuff like this," Jeff said laughing.

As Jeff and Alex made their way outside, Alex decided to reflect back on her day. Aside from the major bomb that she felt was dropped in Art, she felt she had a successful day. She had made a lot of new friends and she was even lucky enough to meet another kid with powers like the ones that she, Matt, and Jeff have. Now all she had to focus on is meeting Ariel's boyfriend, the other psychic kids Ariel told her about, and her new mentor.

***insert mischievous laugh here* Seems like love is in the air for two of the Hardys. Also, they're faced with the chance to meet other kids with abilities like theirs. Read and review please. =)**


	9. What An Interesting Development

**Matt**

Matt was curious about why it was that Jeff and Alex hadn't met up with him, so he was more than a little curious when he saw his younger brother and sister coming out of the school building with two students and two teachers that he didn't know. When the group of six made their way to where Matt was waiting, Alex ran to her brother, a smile glued on her face.

"Hey Matty! We didn't keep you waiting to long did we?" Alex asked.

"No, not at all. You and Jeffro mind letting me know who the new friends are that you two made today?" Matt asked, hugging his sister.

"No problem. The sole girl is Ariel and the boy with her with the red patch in his hair is Kevin. Ariel met up with me and Jeff and was just about to introduce us to her and Kevin's other friends," Alex said.

"Nice to meet you both, Ariel and Kevin," Matt said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too. Especially since you and your brother and sister are like us four," Ariel said.

"Ahem. Not to be rude, but are you gonna make the move to introduce us any time soon, Mr. Thorn?" one of the teachers asked.

"My bad. Alex, Jeff, Matt, this is Mr. Calloway and Mr. Jacobs. There's a reason why they're here with us," Kevin said.

"Why is that?" Matt asked, while Jeff moved to stand with him and Alex.

"It's because they have powers like us, it's just, theirs are really different," Kevin said.

"Really? That's so awesome!" Alex blurted, causing the two teachers to laugh.

"So enthusiastic your sister is. And to answer you, yes. My brother here and I do have powers. They just differ from the somewhat psychic powers that you kids have," Mr. Jacobs said.

"How so? Can we get a demonstration?" Jeff asked, curiously.

"You may. But it'll have to wait until we can take you three to where you'll learn how to control those powers you have," Mr. Calloway said.

As the three Hardys all got in Matt's car and left the school campus following Kevin's lead, each of the three was feeling a different emotion: Alex was excited, Matt was anxious, and Jeff was a little on edge. They were all finally going to meet the person who would help them use their powers properly instead of just them having to try controlling them the best way they could.

* * *

After minutes of driving, the group finally made their way to Haight-Ashbury St. and stopped in front of a line of shops. Seeing Kevin, Ariel, Mr. Calloway, and Mr. Jacobs hop out of their cars, the three Hardys took that as their cue to get out of their car as well. Looking at the particular shop they had parked in front of, they saw the name had read 'Papa Shango's Curiosities & Oddities'.

"Is this the place you guys were headed to?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. Don't let the outside look fool you. It's completely different if you're like us," Ariel said, as they all ventured inside.

Looking around at the various wares the shop carried, Matt, Jeff, and Alex saw that the shop had various antique books, figurines, paintings, and bottles of liquids that they couldn't quite determine was in them. Alex's curiosity had gotten the better of her so as she walked over to pick up one of the old books, she was stopped by Ariel.

"Don't touch these books!" Ariel said.

"Why not? They're just books, right?" Alex asked.

"Yes, but Mr. Wright has a real big issue with people touching certain books. This is one of those books that you shouldn't be touching," Ariel said.

"But why?" Alex asked.

"Because, it's one of a series of very old books that's really hard to find. He uses these books when he needs to assist me and Kevin with something that'll prove to be a stumbling block for us," Ariel said.

"Oh, I get it. But what happens if people that don't have powers come in here and decide to flip through it?" Alex asked.

"They'll just think it's a fictional encyclopedia for something like 'Dungeons & Dragons', at least that's what Mr. Wright says," Ariel said.

"Sounds like a legit excuse. But I'm curious about something. You keep saying Mr. Wright, but the name on the sign outside says Papa Shango. Are they two different people?" Matt asked.

"No, not at all. You see, Papa Shango is somewhat of an alter ego that Mr. Wright assumes when he has to handle anything that's a really serious psychic matter. It could be anything from bringing people back to life or a mass send-off. Me and Ariel have actually gotten to see the Shango side of him when we first started training here," Kevin said.

"Interesting. I wonder if he'll be able to be of any help for us three," Jeff said, admiring a set of figurines that were on display.

"He will. I mean, you should've seen me and Ariel before we came here. It was not a pleasant thing to be around us, that's for sure," Kevin said laughing, earning a shove from Ariel.

"Young Mr. Thorn's got a bit of a point. Me and Mark here have actually had the honor of growing up with him, so when all three of our powers came online, we pretty much banded together and helped the others learn to control their powers. I'm sure he'll be able to help you three out pretty well," Mr. Jacobs said, smiling.

"I hope so. I just want to get this damn power of mine under control or possibly manipulate it into something else," Jeff said.

"We'll see about that Jeff. But all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for you," Matt said, patting his brother on the back.

Hearing a commotion in the back caused the group of six to turn their heads to see, who the three Hardys were assuming to be, Papa Shango himself coming to the front of the store.

"Ariel! Kevin! How are my two best pupils doing today? You both are a bit early for your training today, aren't you?" Mr. Wright asked.

"It may seem that way, but as you can see there are three new reasons as to why we came here so soon," Kevin said, stepping aside so that the three Hardys could make themselves known.

"So these are the three youngsters that Luna said would be coming my way? Nice to meet you three. I'm Mr. Wright, but feel free to call me Mr. W if you'd like," Mr. Wright said.

"It's such a pleasure to meet you sir. My name is Matt, and this is my brother Jeff and my sister-wait. Jeff, where's Alex?" Matt asked, until he felt Alex grab onto the back of his shirt. "Lexi-chu, why are you hiding?"

"I'm scared," Alex said.

"Sis, he's not gonna hurt you. He's the guy that's gonna help us out," Jeff said, trying to urge Alex from behind Matt.

"You'll have to pardon our sister. She's kinda like a five-year-old when it comes to meeting new people, unless either the other person makes the first move or either me or Jeff is there with her," Matt said.

"She has nothing to fear with me. I won't hurt her," Mr. Wright said.

"Didya hear that sis? He's not gonna bite. Don't worry. Me and Matt are right here with you," Jeff said.

"OK. If you say so," Alex said, stepping from behind Matt.

"Now was that so bad? This is my sister Alex and she's not usually this shy. She's just got issues with meeting new people for the first time, which is why it amazes me that she was able to make new friends on our first day," Matt said.

"I'll do my best not to be so shy when you start to teach us," Alex said.

"Haha. She sounds like she's got backbone. It'll be quite the joy to take you three under my wing," Mr. Wright said. "Now what exactly is it that you three have for powers?"

"I'm telepathic. And I'm usually the one out of the three of us that sends off any spirits that come across us," Alex said.

"I can see peoples' auras and I can change a person's emotions," Matt said.

"My damn power is having the ability to take any kind of pain a person may be feeling and transfer it into myself," Jeff said, sulking a little.

"Such promising young talents. But, Jeff, why do you make it seem like your gift is such a bad thing? Psychoempaths are a dime a dozen now-a-days," Mr. Wright said.

"Because, I can't begin to count how many times having this 'gift' has put me in pain just to help another person. And it seems like the only way to rid me of the pain is with either Alex healing me or by taking some kind of crazy medicine," Jeff said.

"I see. Ariel, would you mind taking Alex outside and showing her around the street while I talk to Jeff and Matt?" Mr. Wright said.

"Sure. Come on Alex," Ariel said, as Alex followed her out.

"Now, let's all take a seat and you can tell me all about when you first used your power," Mr. Wright said, as the remaining men all sat down.

Taking a breath, Jeff launched into recounting when he first found out about his power.

* * *

**Alex**

"I wonder what Mr. W had to talk to my brothers and the others about," Alex asked.

"It was probably just curiosity on his end about your brother's gift. It's not that often there are people that have a power like his," Ariel said.

"Jeffy doesn't seem to like it. He's always thinking about why it is that he's got the kind of power he has now," Alex said, as the two walked down the street.

"It's probably just a blessing in disguise that he has the gift he possesses. It could end up being pretty helpful in the future," Ariel said.

"I guess so. I just hope that Mr. W will be able to-Hey! Do you see that girl over there?" Alex asked, pointing at the figure standing in an alleyway a few feet away from where she and Ariel were standing.

"I do. Looks like she's in need of being sent off. We should go handle that now," Ariel said, as she and Alex headed towards the spirit.

Upon getting a closer look, Alex saw that the spirit was a teenager, possibly around Ariel's age, only she looked horrible. She had blonde hair that seemed tangled and she was wearing a black spaghetti-strap tank top, a jean mini-skirt, and a pair of knee-high black stiletto boots. She also appeared to be nervously pacing around, mumbling something under her breath.

"Hey, you there. You lost?" Ariel shouted, once she and Alex were close to the spirit.

Looking towards the two girls, the spirit said "You two can see me?"

"Of course we can see you. Don't worry, we're here to help out. My young friend here will send you off in the blink of an-" "But I can't be sent off just yet!" the spirit shouted, interrupting Ariel.

"What do you mean? You're a spirit after all. That's what we do, help you guys get sent off to rest," Ariel said.

"No, I mean in this sense that I can't go yet because I'm chained here," the spirit said, pulling on a chain that came into view for Ariel and Alex to see.

"You're chained here? You poor thing. Does that mean that you still have unfinished business here with somebody?" Alex asked.

"You could say that, but it's not exactly pleasant business," the spirit said.

"Well, before you launch into your explanation, would you mind telling us your name so that we know how to better help you," Ariel said.

"My name is Barbara Blank, but all of my friends would either call me Barbie or my middle name, Kelly," Kelly said.

"Hey, I know you. I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but we went to school together and I remember when the whole school was in an uproar over you being dead," Ariel said.

"Yeah. Wasn't exactly a picnic on my end having to actually sit through my own memorial service and funeral while hearing my parents and other family members crying over my death. And I still think they don't even know what killed me," Kelly said, as tears started to roll down her face.

"I've been curious about that. What exactly caused you to die anyways? No one ever told us, so everyone at school just started to form their own theories," Ariel said.

"I don't like to even think about it, but since it'll probably help you guys better, I was raped and stabbed to death. That explains why I look like I'm a mess and the fact that there's blood running down my legs," Kelly said.

"That's awful! Do you remember anything else? Like what the guy looked like that did this to you?" Alex asked.

"All I can remember is that he was about mine and Ariel's age and he kept saying something about how pretty I was and that he couldn't wait to make me his. I tried to outrun him, but I tripped and next thing I know, he's forcing himself on me and stabbing me. That's about all I can remember," Kelly said, as she rubbed her head.

"I think that's a bit of a good enough start. We'll be sure to do everything we can to help you out, Kelly," Alex said.

"You two will do that for me?" Kelly said.

"Sure. I mean, after all, this is what we do," Ariel said.

"Thank you both so much for this! I'm counting on you two. Whoever that guy is, he's still out there and I don't think any girl is safe. But I will pass on this bit of info: My friends at PHHS know everything about that night. It'd help you both a lot if you talk to them. Their names are Michelle and Layla. There's a large group, but I don't want to confuse you with names. My fate rests with you two now," Kelly said, before she vanished.

After Kelly was gone, Ariel groaned and said, "Terrific, now I've got to make contact with popular people tomorrow."

"Do you not like Kelly's friends or something?" Alex asked.

"You could say that we aren't exactly on the best of speaking terms. Apparently Kevin and I terrify Michelle and her friends, but since we're doing this to help out a spirit in need, I guess I'll have to suck it up and talk to them," Ariel said, hanging her head.

Patting Ariel's back, Alex said, "There, there. It probably won't end up being that bad. I mean they can't be that evil."

"That's what you think, naive youngster. Now, I think we should head back to the shop and let Kevin and your brothers know about this interesting encounter," Ariel said.

As Ariel and Alex made their way back to the shop, Alex couldn't help but feel scared about the possibility of there being a teenage rapist on the loose and also the fact that said rapist was possibly a student at her new school. All she knew was that she just wanted to cuddle with her brothers back at their house and try to forget about her earlier encounter with Kelly.

**I couldn't resist adding this last part into the story, but I feel in the long run of the story, it'll be really interesting. Anyone willing to take a guess on who killed Kelly?**


	10. Tell Us All About It

**Alex**

As Alex sat in her English class the next day, her mind kept wandering back to everything that she had learned yesterday. She had been a bit on edge ever since getting the news about the fact that there was a serial rapist on the loose, who was also a student at her school. After the group discussion that they had at Mr. Wright's shop yesterday, she had went home only to just shut herself in her room and hide under her covers.

* * *

_"What do we do about Kelly? She really seems to want me and Ariel to help her out," Alex said, once they filled everyone else in on what happened._

_ "This is definitely a first time occurrence as far as a spirit reaching out to any of my students for help. What do you want to do?" Mr. Wright asked._

_ "I honestly think we should just leave her alone. But seeing as how we promised to help her, I suppose that we will," Ariel said._

_ "Good idea. How about you, Alex?" Mr. Wright said, turning to look at Alex only to see that she was clinging onto Matt. "Alex, what's the matter?"_

_ "I'm a bit scared to try to do anything about this. What if this person finds out what we're up to and they try to get us?" Alex asked, looking scared._

_ "They won't find out unless they have powers like we all have. And even if they do, one of us will be there to help you out," Ariel said, trying to comfort the younger girl._

_ "She's right. We'll be there to help out if anyone tries anything funny tomorrow or any day for that matter," Kevin said._

* * *

Thinking back over everyone's words, she had started to feel a bit better, but Alex was still feeling leery about trying to go around any guys in fear of the fact that they might be the one going around and hurting girls.

"Hey, Alex. Are you OK?" Kaitlyn asked, waving her hand in front of Alex's face to try to get her attention.

Snapping out of her thoughts and looking over to see her friends' worried faces, Alex sighed and said "Not really. I need to ask you guys a question."

"Sure, what is it, Alex?" Cody asked.

"Umm, do either one of you two know anything about a girl named Kelly Blank that went to this school? I heard some of the other kids around here talking about her and I got curious," Alex said.

"Kelly Blank…Oh, I know who you're talking about. She was a freshman here last year when her rape and murder happened. No one's been able to find out who it was, but in all honesty, I've got a suspect or two," Kaitlyn said.

"Who do you think would do that to someone like Kelly? She was one of the most popular girls in the school, not to mention it seemed like she had a perfect life and perfect friends," Cody said.

"Well, I was thinking it could've either been an ex-boyfriend of hers that's a sophomore now, or it could've been one of those three guys that always seem to be assholes to anyone that tries to talk to them," Kaitlyn said.

"Even so, you know that Mike moved on from her and got with Eve and those three don't seem to be interested in any of the girls here," Cody said.

"Hey, I never said that these were good leads. I'm just saying," Kaitlyn said, throwing her hands up.

"Hey, um, new kid over here. Would you two care to fill me in on who you both are talking about?" Alex asked, waving her hands around.

"Sorry about that, Alex. You see, when Kelly was alive, she had a boyfriend, Mike Mizanin. They seemed to be perfect matches for each other, but after what happened, Mike was a total mess. Then there are the three mystery kids we're talking about. Their names are Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns. No one really knows much about them, aside from the fact that it seems like they'll do just about anything and everything to get in trouble, whether it's cussing about teachers or picking fights with other students. So everyone just keeps their distance from them. But the thing is that they would always be checking out Michelle and her friends all the time. Doesn't really help them that they constantly wear stuff that's more fit to be worn on a runway than to a high school," Kaitlyn said.

"So you think that maybe one of them might've had something to do with what happened to Kelly?" Alex asked.

"It's possible, but the police have never found any leads that could be of any help in the case. And the thing is that Kelly isn't even the first person this happened to," Kaitlyn said.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that this has happened before?" Alex asked, starting to feel scared.

"Yeah. I think something like it happened when we were in middle school, but the girl that ended up getting raped was able to get away before the guy could do any real damage," Kaitlyn said.

"Do you know who the girl was that got away?" Alex asked.

"It was our friend, Gail Kim. She used to date Daniel until it happened and then she was the one that broke things off with him because she didn't want him to think badly about her. Kind of a shame if you ask me. Gail was pretty cool too. Now all she does is just keep to herself," Kaitlyn said, sighing.

After taking in this information and hearing the bell ring, Alex left class and was headed to Teen Living to let Ariel know what she had found out and to try taking her mind off of everything she had been told by talking to AJ when she had realized that she had walked the wrong way and ended up on a hallway she didn't recognize. She was about to turn and walk away when she bumped into a boy she hadn't seen that much around the school. He was tall, had blonde and black dyed hair, and was noticeably dressed in all black.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking," Alex said, trying to walk away, only to be blocked by the other person. "Please, just let me by so that I can go to class."

"Now why would I do that to such a pretty little thing like you? Not that often that new kids come here, especially cute girls like yourself," the boy said.

"I-I'm warning you right now. If you try anything funny, I'll start screaming and people will come running to help me," Alex said, as she was backed into the lockers behind her.

"Darling, everyone's nearly in class by now, so there will be no one to disturb us," the boy said leaning in.

At that moment, Alex didn't know what to do. She wasn't sure whether to try to fight this boy off or start screaming in hopes that somebody would come help her. What she did was try to telepathically communicate with Ariel in hopes that she'd be able to slip out of class and come to her rescue, so she was in shock when she heard Kevin yelling at the boy to let her leave.

"Hey you! Let Alex go right now!" Kevin yelled.

"Why should I? She's so cute, not to mention I've never been with a girl before. Maybe she'll be my first time," the boy said.

"I'm warning you right now. Either let her go, or you're going to regret it," Kevin said, in a cold and emotionless voice.

"I really don't know what some goth bitch like you is going to, considering that you're probably one of the biggest wimps ever. But I welcome you to try something anyways," the boy said, stepping away long enough for Alex to run to stand with Kevin.

Kevin just stood there and stared at the boy. Neither of the other two noticed at first, but soon Kevin's eyes started to glow red and all around them, lights started to flicker. Kevin started to stare at the boy and as he did, he caused the boy to slowly start to fall to the ground, gripping his head and moaning. Kevin had left Alex's side long enough to go over to the boy and whisper in his ear, while holding eye contact, "The girl that you tried to hurt, you have never seen her before. And when my friend and I leave you, you'll snap out of this trance and go to class with no memory of what just happened. Is that clear?" The boy nodded his head and Kevin stood to leave with Alex following closely behind him. As the two left, Kevin stopped long enough to talk to Alex.

"Alex, are you OK?" Kevin asked.

"I'm a little shaken up, but I'll live. Who was that kid anyways?" Alex asked.

"That was Seth Rollins. He's one of three kids that you definitely need to stay away from. Him and his friends are nothing but thugs and bullies," Kevin spat.

"Wait a minute. Seth Rollins? Two of my friends were just talking about him in first period. One of them kinda has a theory that he and his friends might be behind what happened to Kelly," Alex said.

"Hmm, that's a bit of interesting advice. Head on to class and just wait for lunch that way you and Ariel can talk to Kelly's friends about what happened with her. They might be a big help for us," Kevin said.

"OK. And Kevin, thanks for coming to my rescue like that," Alex said, hugging Kevin before speeding off.

Kevin stood there for a few minutes, taking in the fact that Alex just hugged him. Slowly, he started to smile and laugh, saying "Crazy kid. Good thing we've got her here now," before leaving for class.

* * *

"You ready for this Ariel?" Alex asked.

"I guess so. I'd rather be getting my teeth drilled right now, but I suppose we're doing this for a spirit in need so it's the least we could do," Ariel said, groaning.

"If they're mean like you keep telling me, we can pull out of there at any minute. Now let's go get this over with," Alex said, as the two went into the cafeteria. "Now where are they sitting in here?"

"You see the girl over there with blonde hair and her short friend? That's Michelle and Layla," Ariel said.

Looking where Ariel told her to look, Alex could tell that these two girls were definitely candidates to be friends with Kelly. Taking a breath, Ariel and Alex made their way over to where Michelle was talking with her friends, much to the surprise of everyone around her.

"Ari, people are thinking about us," Alex whispered.

"It's because of the fact that two odd-looking people like us are making our way over to the table of supposed school royalty," Ariel said.

"Well, it's like I said, be nice. We just have to talk to them about Kelly and then we can leave," Alex said.

When the two finally made their way to Michelle's group, the popular kids all immediately started to stare at them.

"Umm, is there something that we can help you two with?" Michelle asked.

Taking a breath after fighting back her blush, Alex said "Uhh, yeah. My name is Alex and I'm new at this school. I got curious after hearing stuff about your friend Kelly Blank and what happened to her. Is there any possible way you'd want to talk about what happened to her?"

Hearing Kelly's name caused all conversation among the group to stop as everyone all looked to Michelle and a brown-haired boy sitting with them. Standing, Michelle said "It still feels raw inside, but I'll talk about it. Lay, will you and Mike come with us?"

"Sure thing, Chelle. Come on Mike," Layla said, motioning for the boy to come with them.

After the five left the cafeteria, Michelle looked at Alex and Ariel and asked "OK, why is it that you two want to know so much about what happened with Kells? It still hurts us to talk about her not being here."

"We just wanted to know. I got curious about why it seemed like she was talked about and yet the person that did it to her hasn't been found yet. Do you know anything about what had been going with her leading up to the night in question?" Alex asked.

"Haha, you sound like an amateur cop. Well, that's something Mike might be able to answer for you," Michelle said, motioning to Mike.

Looking at Mike, Alex asked "Mike, it's of major importance that you let us know about what happened with Kelly. I've got a feeling that the guy that did it might still be out there, and I want him to stop hurting anymore girls. Would you be willing to talk to us about it?"

After a minute of silent deliberation, Mike took a breath and said "Well, I don't really like trying to think back to what happened, but since it might help you two catch the sick fuck that did this to my girlfriend, I'll tell you what I know. Leading up to when it happened, we were just so in love with each other. Well, the night it happened, we were having a date night at my house and it was time for her to leave. I kept insisting that she stay with me, but she said she'd be fine with walking home, seeing as how she doesn't live that far from me. Then, while it's in the middle of the night, I'm hearing police sirens outside my house and the next thing I know, I'm running downstairs and out the door of my apartment, just to see the dead body of my girlfriend being loaded into an ambulance," Mike said, crying at this point.

"Did the police officers at the scene let you know anything about what may have happened?" Ariel asked.

"They didn't let me know anything until after her funeral and everything else for her was over. Then I heard about how they couldn't catch the guy and my heart just fell into my shoes. All I can say is that if you can manage to find the person that did this, I want you two to make him hurt and make him hurt bad," Mike said.

At this point, Kelly had appeared next to her friends and while Alex was comforting Mike, Kelly said "Tell Mike that I love him and miss him. Tell him that I'm confident in the fact that you and your friends and your brothers will be able to help me pass on."

"Mike, Kelly says that she loves you and that she misses you. She also said that she's got faith in the fact that we'll be able to help her pass on to rest in peace," Alex said.

"How would you know what she said? She's been dead for close to a year now," Michelle asked, puzzled.

"You three might find this hard to believe, but I'm a medium. I can see and communicate with spirits of the dearly departed. I've got no problem letting people know, but it's just so long as I can tell them that I'm OK with it. So don't go around blabbing about this to your friends, OK?" Alex said.

"We'll keep it a secret. Don't worry. Just make sure you do everything you can to help Kelly pass on," Mike said, hugging Alex.

"We'll do our best, won't we Ariel?" Alex asked.

"Yes we will. And don't think I'm doing this for you guys. I just want to help Alex out," Ariel said.

"Thanks a lot you two. We're counting on you both," Mike said.

**Teen detectives... Is there nothing more adorable?**


	11. Take A Leap

**Jeff**

Jeff laid on his bed and stared up at his ceiling, unable to fall asleep. He kept thinking back to his day at school and everything that he'd done: he had been given a big history project which would take him no time at all to work on, played a really fast-paced game of soccer in PE that was won for his team, got a lot of homework to do in Algebra that he took care of in class, and spent most of Art, working on his life study all while talking to his friends. And yet, after everything he had gotten accomplished during the day, his thoughts kept drifting back to Maria. He had only just met her the other day and already he was struggling with feelings for her that he had never had for many other girls before. After spending some time talking to her during lunch, he found out that she was considering transferring into Art the same period that he and Alex had it, so after hearing her talking it over, he decided to encourage her to get her class changed. He had actually started to lower his guard a little and was feeling so happy for the rest of the day, even during the training session that he, Matt, and Alex had at the end of the day. While he had been thinking about his talks with Maria, something unusual happened during their training session.

* * *

_"Whoa Jeff! What are you doing?" Alex asked, shock clear in her voice._

_ "What do you mean, Lexi-chu?" Jeff asked._

_ "That," Alex said, pointing to the area around him._

_ Taking that as a cue to look at what exactly it was that Alex was talking about, Jeff looked around him, only to see that he was being surrounded by what looked like ethereal forms of puppies, kittens, and several other things. In awe at what was happening, Jeff started to smile and laugh and as he did so, it seemed like more of the forms started to materialize. Once Matt and everyone else had seen what was going on, they all made their way over to where Jeff and Alex were._

_ "Whoa Jeff! How are you doing that?" Matt asked in wonder._

_ "It's all part of his ability, Matt. Psychoempaths tend to develop their powers differently than others do. Sometimes they end up developing another ability that ties in with their emotions. Jeff's new ability would appear to be that he can create projections based on his emotions," Mr. Wright said._

_ "Impressive. So do things that Jeff conjure up stay around him for a long time?" Mr. Calloway asked._

_ "They shouldn't Mark. As long as Jeff focuses intently enough, he'll be able to keep the things he conjures around for a bit. But as you can see, since this is a new ability for him, it's already starting to fade away," Mr. Wright said, as the forms Jeff had created started to fade away._

_ After the last thing was gone, Jeff kept his grin on his face and, looking around at everyone, said "I can't believe this. Are you sure that this is something that only happens to people with powers like mine?"_

_ "Not exactly. It happens to everyone with powers at some point. The sudden development of this power must have come from something really good that's happened to you recently," Mr. Wright said._

_ "Cool," Jeff said, before everyone's training resumed._

* * *

Jeff smiled at the memory. He had been a bit upset that the power he had was one that would cause him pain, so the fact that he could do something like this gave him reassurance that having the ability to absorb another person's pain wasn't so bad. Savoring this fact, he rolled over and was prepared to fall asleep when he heard a soft knocking on his door. Getting out of bed to see who it was, he opened his door to see Alex standing there holding her stuffed Skelanimals rabbit, Jack.

"Lexi, what are you doing out of bed at this time of night? We've got school tomorrow," Jeff asked quietly.

"I know, but I was just wondering if I could sleep in bed with you tonight. I had a bad dream and I'm scared to sleep by myself tonight," Alex asked, in a small voice.

"Sure thing, sis. Come on," Jeff said, as he let Alex into his room.

Once the two got settled into Jeff's bed together, Alex moved closer to Jeff, prompting Jeff to wrap an arm around her to pull her closer to him.

"Do you want to talk about your nightmare?" Jeff asked.

"I don't really want to. But, I've heard that talking about dreams you have will help you get over any potential terrors you could have from them. All I can remember is running through this really dark place as fast as I could and the next thing I know, I'm being tackled to the ground and, next thing I know, I'm being stabbed over and over until I'm dead. And that made me think of what happened to poor Kelly. Then, to top it all off, I had a flashback to when we were in school and one of the three school bad kids had me pinned up against the lockers. I just didn't feel like being alone in my room tonight," Alex said as tears freely fell down her face.

Pulling Alex closer to him, Jeff started trying to calm Alex down, while saying "Shh, shh. It'll be OK, sis. As long as you've got me and Matt and all of our other friends at school now, you won't have to worry about being alone anymore. And if anyone does try anything with you, someone will be by your side to help you out."

Around a sniffle, Alex looked up at Jeff and said "Thanks Jeffy. I always had a feeling that I could come talk to any of you with anything that was on my mind. I just hope that we can make some headway in trying to help Kelly find out who killed her and help her pass on."

"We will, Lexi-chu. After all, we're doing better than the cops around here are so it must mean that we will get to help her rest. Now, it's time that you went to sleep for school tomorrow," Jeff said, taking Alex's glasses off of her face and kissing her on the forehead.

"OK. Night night, big brother. And just in case you were wondering, I'm sure Maria would think it would be the cutest thing in the world that you can do what you can do," Alex said, around a yawn, before she went to sleep.

Chuckling at what Alex just said, Jeff pulled her closer to him and said "I'm sure she would too, sis," before he fell asleep himself.

...

The next day, Jeff and Alex were the first two in their house to be awake. Deciding to take advantage of the extra time they had by getting ready for school in addition to eating breakfast early. They also spent their time watching morning TV shows until Matt and their dad woke up.

"Dad, I think it might be a sign of the apocalypse. Jeff and Alex are actually up and out of bed early this morning," Matt said playfully.

"Now Matthew, no need to make jokes like that so early in the morning," Gilbert said.

"It's our own decision to wake up when we feel like it, so why should it matter when we decide to roll out of the bed in the mornings?" Jeff asked.

"Now Jeffrey, there's no need for you to get drawn into it. Just pay him no mind," Gilbert said.

"Fine. But, at any rate, good morning to both of you," Jeff said.

"Good morning. Now was there anything so wrong with saying that?" Gilbert asked, laughing.

"It's a lot less of a fun way to start the morning. But you know we just joke with each other because we love each other. Now, I guess I should go get ready for school now," Matt said, heading back upstairs.

Once it was just Jeff, Alex, and their dad in the living room, Gilbert proceeded to ask "I'm curious about it too. Why is it that you both are up so early this morning?"

"I guess you could say that we slept well and felt really good once we woke up," Jeff said.

"Yeah. I know you said for me not to, but I shared a bed with Jeff last night, Daddy. I had a bad dream and I wanted to sleep with Jeff to help me forget about it," Alex said.

"That's nice of you, Jeff. Maybe Alexis should sleep in bed with you more often if it will help you wake up," Gilbert said, smiling.

While Matt and their dad spent time getting ready, Jeff and Alex spent most of the rest of their morning talking about what they had planned to do for the day. Once Matt was done getting ready and had eaten breakfast, the three left for school. As soon as the trio arrived at school, they headed off for their respective classes, seeing as how there was only a few minutes before the bell rang to start the day. Jeff got to his history class and soon he was joined by Randy and the others. Seeing Jeff staring out the window smiling prompted Randy to ask Jeff what was up.

"Hey Jeff, any particular reason why you've got a Joker-sized smile on your face?" Randy asked.

"No reason. I guess you can say that, Randy. I just wanted to ask you a question," Jeff said.

"Sure. What is it, man?" Randy asked.

"Does Maria have a boyfriend or is she dating anyone by any chance?" Jeff asked.

"No. She's actually been single for the past few months, so I guess you could say that she's been trying to find a guy to date for a while now. Why? Are you interested?" Randy said, sending a sly smirk towards Jeff.

"Maybe. I just don't know how I'd go about doing so though," Jeff said blushing.

"Just go for it. Just come out with it that you want to go steady with her and I'm sure she'd welcome being in a relationship with you," Candice blurted.

"Babe, were you listening to us?" Randy asked.

"Kinda hard not to, especially when you consider that the only ones paying attention to anything you two were saying are me and our other friends. By the way, they're all in agreement that you should take a chance and tell Maria you like her. If if makes you feel any better, all she ever talks about since you, your brother, and your sister met us is you," Candice said.

"Really? She actually talks about me?" Jeff asked, blushing.

"Yeah, she does. We live together, so whenever she talks about any of our friends, you always seem to be the one that's on her mind," Candice said smiling.

"Wow. I'll be sure to do so when we're either at lunch or in Art together," Jeff said.

As class went on, Jeff's thoughts drifted off into thinking about how he would ask Maria to be his girlfriend. All he knew was that it was going to be one of the most nerve-wracking things he had ever done before.

...

Second period seemed to go by fairly quickly, so when it was time for lunch, Jeff and the others in PE with him had went to the cafeteria and made it there pretty early. Taking a seat at one of the outside tables, they were slowly joined by most of the others in their group. But after a few minutes, everyone started to notice that Alex, AJ, and Maria hadn't come outside yet.

"Man, I wonder what's keeping those three for so long," Amy said.

"They probably just got held up in class for something," John said.

"I wouldn't exactly say that. Mr. Sandow didn't hold Maria behind in class, so I can't think of what it is that's keeping them," Trish said.

Sharing a look, Matt and Jeff had nearly gotten up from their seats when, out of the corners of their eyes, they saw Alex, AJ, and Maria headed their way, along with Kevin, Ariel, and another girl they hadn't had the chance to get to meet.

"Sorry to worry you guys. We got a bit held up because Alex and Ariel here got sidetracked talking to Gail," Maria said.

"It's fine and everything, but Gail, my God. It's so good to see you here with us again," Daniel said.

"Well, I got to talking with Alex here and pretty much, AJ and Maria came up, so I decided that I'd break my self-imposed exile to come talk to you guys again," Gail said, blushing.

"Like Daniel said, it's just so good to have you back here with us instead of sitting alone somewhere," Trish said.

"Thanks for taking me back so quickly you guys," Gail said, smiling and taking a seat next to Daniel.

"Now on to a more pressing matter, Alex, how is it that you were able to make friends with the dead kids?" Amy asked, curiously.

"Dead kids? Do you mean Kevin and Ari?" Alex asked, tilting her head to the side in wonder.

"Yeah. It's not really a nickname we gave them. That's just what they'd like for people to call them. Anyways, how'd you manage to make friends with them? I thought they were closing themselves off to talking to mostly everyone here," Amy said.

"Well, Ari's got Teen Living with me and AJ, so I decided to talk to her and since AJ was with me, she decided to start talking to us both. And now we're friends," Alex said smiling.

"Sounds good enough to me. After all, I never really saw why it was that everyone called you two that anyways. Nothing wrong with wanting to be goth as far as I can tell," Punk said.

"Doesn't really bug us. As far as we can tell being different is a huge help in a sea of tans and perfect hair," Kevin said, as he and the others took seats with the group.

...

Lunch seemed to pass on as quickly as the first half of the day had and before anyone knew it, it was time for fourth period. Once Jeff, Maria, Daniel, Kaitlyn, Cody, and Alex got to class and got started on their projects, Jeff moved so that he was sitting closer to Maria.

"That's a really pretty picture of a dove you're drawing," Jeff said.

"Thanks. I've always liked doves because they're a symbol of purity. Not to mention they're the bird that gets released during weddings," Maria said, blushing.

"That was so beautiful of you to say," Jeff said, causing Maria's blush to get even deeper.

"Not really. I'm just so used to being free to say stuff like this without ever thinking twice about it really," Maria said.

"There's nothing wrong with saying what's on your mind, Ria. I do it a lot. Like now, there's something that I want to ask you," Jeff said.

"Sure, Jeff. What is it?" Maria asked.

"I was wondering if, that is if you'd like to, if you'd like to be my girlfriend. I know I've only been here for a few days, but ever since I first met you, I just instantly felt this weird connection with you," Jeff said, holding his breath and waiting for Maria's answer.

As Maria sat in her seat and looked at Jeff, he couldn't help but feel that he made a mistake, so before he could open his mouth to apologize, Maria said "Yes."

"Huh? Did you just say yes?" Jeff asked, looking at Maria.

"Yeah. I mean, I'll be totally honest here too, Jeff. Ever since I first met you, I've wanted the chance to get to know you. You're such a nice and caring person, so I was thinking maybe some time soon, we'd actually get to be boyfriend and girlfriend," Maria said.

"Now you know your answer. And I promise to be the best boyfriend I can be," Jeff said, pulling Maria in for a hug, which she responded to.

After finally letting Maria know about how he really felt about her, Jeff felt like he was walking on air. For the rest of his day, all he did was talk to Maria and his friends and work on his project, all while silently being thankful that he had swallowed his fear and toughened up enough to ask out the girl of his dreams.

**I knew I'd be able to find a way to finally get Jeff and Maria together. ^^ Don't forget to R & R please. =)**


	12. Nerves and Fear

The next day, the three Hardys, Kevin, Ariel, Mr. Calloway, and Mr. Jacobs were all gathered at Mr. Wright's shop as they all worked at practicing using their powers. However as their practicing went on, Jeff kept getting distracted as he thought about a talk he had with Maria before everyone had left school for the day.

_"Hey Jeff, me and some of the others were wondering if you, Matt, and Alex would be interested in coming to the mall with us. Since it's the start of the weekend, we figured that we'd start it by doing some early window shopping," Maria said._

_ "That sounds like fun Ria, but me and the others are kinda busy with something later today," Jeff said_

_ "What is it? Are you guys going to need help with it?" Maria asked._

_ "No, we can handle it. We're just going to do some, uh, studying with Kevin and Ariel later today," Jeff said, as he said the semi-false lie._

_ "Oh. Well, that's fine. Maybe we could get together some other day," Maria said, disappointment written on her face._

_ "Don't worry Ria. Just text me tomorrow and I'll be free to hang out all day if you want," Jeff said, placing a hand on Maria's shoulder._

_ Looking up to Jeff, Maria grinned and said "OK. Just let me know ahead of time if you end up getting busy with something."_

_ "I promise," Jeff said, smiling._

"Earth to Jeff! Hello? Anyone in there?" Alex asked, waving her hand back and forth in front of Jeff's face.

Snapping out of his inner thoughts, Jeff looked around to see that everyone was looking at him with almost identical looks of confusion. Heaving a sigh, Jeff looked to Mr. Wright and asked "Is it OK if I sit down and take a breather for a few minutes? My focus just isn't in the right place."

"Sure thing. In fact, why don't we all take a break for a few minutes? I'm expecting a delivery in a few minutes, so I'm going around to the front to wait for it," Mr. Wright said as he left the room.

Heaving a sigh of irritation, Jeff took a seat on the floor and put his head in his hands while the others stepped out of the room.

Moving to sit next to Jeff, Matt put a hand on Jeff's shoulder and said "Everything alright Jeffro?"

"Not exactly, Matt," Jeff said around another sigh.

"Do you wanna talk about what's on your mind? You know that I'll always hear you out on whatever's bothering you," Matt said, concerned about his younger brother.

Turning to look at Matt, Jeff asked "Would you believe it that I've been off on trying to get better at keeping a better reign on my powers because of the fact that I've been thinking about Maria?"

"I don't really find it that hard to believe considering the fact that you were creating fluffy red and pink hearts all around you earlier," Matt said, grinning crookedly at Jeff.

Blushing, Jeff stammered "I-I-I was doing what now?"

"That other ability you have aside from being able to heal people, you were tapping into it while we were all training and you were off in your own little world. You kept projecting hearts, flowers, and rainbows, which pretty much made me think that maybe you were thinking about Ria," Matt said, his grin getting wider.

Groaning, Jeff hung his head and said "Oh my god! I must've looked like such a dope to everyone."

"Not exactly. As far as everyone knows, you were training and testing out the new ability that you have, so no one got any ideas about what could've been going on in your head. And don't get me wrong. Alex almost tried to read your thoughts, but Mr. Wright and I told her not to," Matt said.

"Thanks for that, Matty. I don't think I would've been able to live it down if Alex found out what I was thinking about," Jeff said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Don't mention it. After all, if she tries to make any cracks about you and Maria, you could always get on her about Cody," Matt said, grinning evilly as he stood up.

"I forgot about that entirely. At least it's a comfort to know that things are going so well for us. I guess maybe we should step around to see what the others are doing," Jeff said, as he stood up as well.

…

"I wonder what's keeping those two back there," Alex said, worried.

"They're probably just back there having a talk about something. Jeff did look pretty upset about something," Ariel said.

"He did? I didn't notice. But then again, I guess it must be something a bit more personal for Matt and Jeff to talk about," Alex said.

"You make it sound almost like they've got stuff they hide from you. I'm sure they wouldn't do anything like that," Ariel said reassuringly.

"I know that. But, I think my paranoid fears come from the fact that since I'm adopted I feel like I've just been an unwelcome guest in Matt, Jeff, and my dad's family," Alex said, a touch dejectedly.

"Alexis, I don't think you should be saying stuff like that. It's pretty obvious to everyone that your brothers love you very much, so you shouldn't be all too worried about them not loving you," Ariel said.

"I guess you're right. I just get in moods like that sometimes for no reason at all, especially when they do something for the anniversary of the day their mom died," Alex said.

"Maybe it's at least just been a relief to you that you got the chance to talk about whatever's been on your mind," Ariel said, putting a hand on Alex's shoulder.

"It has. Thanks for hearing me out on this, Ari. I've never really been able to talk to anyone about these feelings I get, so I feel great to finally get it off my chest," Alex said, hugging Ariel.

Just as Alex said this, Kevin looked over to see that Mr. Wright was headed over to where their group was resting. However, Mr. Wright looked oddly worried about something.

"Mr. Wright, is everything OK?" Kevin asked, causing the others to turn and look at him.

"I just got a visit from one of the local sheriffs. They were just spreading around warning messages for people to be careful when they're walking the streets alone at night. With all of these reports of rapists killing teenage girls, people are very worried about their own safety and well-being," Mr. Wright said.

"I still can't help but shake this sinking feeling that the person behind all of this might be one of the people that goes to our school. It just seems a bit too weird that apparently two of the victims were girls that go to the local schools," Alex said, wrinkling her forehead in thought.

"Maybe we're overlooking something else about all of this. After all, the info Kelly's been giving us has been a bit spotty in some areas. For all we know, we could have more than one person behind all of this on our hands," Kevin said.

"We could always try our own method of interrogation on some of the people around us," Mr. Jacobs said, as a small flame started to shoot up from the palm of his hand.

"Easy now, Glen. We can't have you going around setting people on fire because things are a little slow with trying to solve this case. It'll just take some time to figure out who would do this and how they've managed to stay under the radar for so long," Mr. Calloway said, trying to calm his younger brother down.

While this commotion was going on, Alex took that as a chance to step outside the store and take a breath of fresh air. She may not have been showing her fear on the outside, but on the inside, she was a ball of fear. The very possibility that she could get killed over trying to help a spirit pass on was enough to make her have second thoughts about this and just leave it to Ariel and the others to figure out. Heaving a sigh, Alex turned on her heel and proceeded to walk down the street to the alley where she had first seen Kelly. The closer she got to the spot, the more she started to feel that maybe there could be something along the lines of clues that could be of use. Wrapped up in her own thoughts however, Alex bumped into someone who was standing in front of the entryway to the alley.

"Oww! Oh my god! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you," Alex said, as she stood back up and fixed her clothes.

"It's fine. I guess it's a bit of a hazard for me to just be standing around, so I suppose most of the blame falls on me," the person said.

Once she had finished reorienting herself, Alex looked up to see that the person she had bumped into was possibly a high school student just like she was. The person was wearing all black, even though it was a warm day, and had short, brown hair. While Alex was taking in the visage of the boy in front of her, she faintly heard a small voice in the back of her head that was telling her to turn and run away. However, she ignored that voice and decided to strike up a conversation, all while she felt a small blush creep across her face.

"I don't think I've really properly introduced myself. My name is Alexis Hardy, but to my friends and family members, I'm called Alex," Alex said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Alexis. My name is Dean, Dean Ambrose," Dean said.

"Nice to meet you, Dean. So, can I ask what it is exactly that brings you to a place like an alley in the middle of the day?" Alex asked.

"I guess you could say that something happened here that I know could've prevented. I just keep getting weird vibes coming from this area and I can't help but get pulled into looking around here," Dean said.

"That sounds pretty awful. Did something happen to someone that you used to know?" Alex asked.

"You could say that too," Dean stated simply.

Feeling weird about what Dean just told her, Alex took this as a chance to see if she could try reading his mind. However, when she tried to key on reading anything in his mind, she couldn't make out anything. Instead, it seemed like she was trying to tune a radio that kept picking up static-filled channels. These all seemed like warning signs that she should stop, but Alex kept trying to find something in Dean's thoughts that could give her a better idea about what this incident was that Dean had told her about. But, at that moment, she faintly heard the voices of Kevin and Ariel calling for her to get away from Dean. Alex tried to turn and run towards them, but couldn't move any part of her body at all, which made her start to feel panicked. Upon seeing Alex in distress, Kevin made a running charge at Dean. But when Dean saw Kevin coming for him, he donned an evil smirk and, with a snap of his fingers, disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Cursing the area where Dean once was, Kevin turned and saw Alex rooted to the spot.

Worried, Kevin stood in front of Alex and, shaking her shoulders, yelled "Alex? Alex, are you in there? Snap out of it! Whatever happened is over now!"

After several minutes of Kevin's panicked yelling and shaking, Alex snapped out of the trance she was in and, falling to her knees, started to cry.

"Alex? Are you OK?" Kevin asked slowly.

"No. No! Kevin, it was horrible!" Alex said, around her cries.

"What exactly happened? Did you see anything in Dean's mind that may have been of any immediate concern?" Kevin asked.

"I saw too much! That guy, Dean, he has some seriously scary things in his thoughts. Dismembered bodies. Blood everywhere. People screaming. He's not of a sane mind! He's a dangerous person!" Alex said, as she continued crying.

Taking this as a cue to head back to the shop, Kevin picked up Alex and held her close as they made their way back. While Kevin walked, he took in everything that Alex had told him. The mere fact that someone could have such thoughts in their head was enough to scare even him. All he knew was that he had to tell Mr. Wright about Alex's little confrontation and about what she said she saw.

**So, yeah... Just wanted to throw in a bit of Dean spookiness this chapter.**


End file.
